A Broken Beginning
by nimacu
Summary: Rewritten to be post OotP. Something happens to one of the Scoobies resulting in a trip to England and someone is killing off the competition. Chapter 19added 203. hpbtvs
1. A Missing Witch

Title: A Broken Beginning

Author: Nicki C. 

Email: Nimacu@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: "It's all been done before"- Barenaked Ladies.  I don't own Buffy.   Nor do I own the world of Harry Potter.  They both belong to Joss and J.k. 

Summery: Something happens that causes the Scoobies to head to England.

Feedback: Of Course I want it.

Setting:  Ok, this is set during the middle of September. Harry and the gang our in their sixth year and in the Buffy verse it's set after a couple of weeks after episode 7.3, after that it's AU.  Willow has been home recovering from the loss of blood.

A/N** I did post this story before, but I decided to repost it now that I've read Order of the Phoenix,  I never finished typing it up the way I had it written out because I'd decided to repost it after I'd changed it to fit with the new book.  Some chapters there won't be any change and some will be so different you'd hardly recognize it.  But since I only have to redo ten chapters, I think you guys will live.  Also now that OotP has been released I'll be finishing up this story in acceptable time.

A/N* This my first Buffy fic, it's also my first Harry Potter fic.  So it's obviously my first crossover.  Actually it's only my second fic ever. I'm still learning a lot. So go easy on me, but also let me know what you think.  Just don't be too mean.

            Buffy and Dawn were in the living room and Buffy was pacing back and forth furiously.  "This is horrible, this is absolutely the most rotten thing to ever happen to me! How could he do this?" At the end of Buffy's outburst Dawn could barely contain her giggles. "It's going to be ok sis, it's not the end of the world" Dawn tried to say sympathetically but her snorts of laughter proved how miserably she was failing.  

"No one stands up Buffy Summers and gets away with it!" Buffy exclaimed.  "I'm beautiful, intelligent, sexy and I kick major ass.  Men are dying to go out with me. Women want to be me!" By the end of the last statement Dawn was practically rolling on the floor laughing.   "What's so funny?" Buffy asked as she watched Dawn regain her composure. "You've lived through half a dozen apocalypses, killed more demons than anyone can imagine or count.  But one really cute English guy stands you up and I can bet that I've never seen you as indignant as you are right now" Dawn again collapsed into giggles. "Humph! I'll go somewhere where I can find a little sympathy." Buffy stalked off.

"Willow?" Buffy called as she entered the witch's room.  "Are you in here Wills?" "Wow that's weird" Buffy thought, "I don't remember her leaving the house and she's not downstairs, I'll guess I'll do another sweep.  Willow would never go anywhere without letting someone know.  It's the Scooby code." 

Buffy proceeded to search the upstairs again "Have you seen Will?" Buffy called down to Dawn.  "I can't find her anywhere."  

"No, I haven't seen her; did you check her room?" 

"Of course not, why would I check her room since that's where she said she was going to be? Buffy replied in her trademark sarcastic wit. "Well I go check the basement, and you go check the yard; then if we still can't find her we'll call Xander and see if he's got any ideas."  "Ok" Dawn replied and they both headed out.

Buffy headed to the basement but just as she was heading back up the stairs, a horrible feeling settled into her stomach.  It felt like someone had just broken her heart except worse.  She stopped for a moment to regain her composure "Sure that freckled-faced dork stood me up but this, this is something else.  Oh Will, I hope your ok" She forced herself to calm down before she headed up to call Xander with Dawn.  Freaking Dawn out would do no good, especially since Willow could be out with Xander at this very minute.

Ten minutes later they were both back in the living room and Buffy was on the phone with Xander.  "Xan, have you seen Willow? There was silence as Buffy listened to the other side of the line.  "Well then we need you to get over here fast, my slayer sense is going batty.  Something is definitely up" Buffy said her goodbyes to Xander and hung up the phone. 

"Did you mean what you said to Xander about your Slayer sense going all wiggy?" Dawn asked.  "Yeah while I was in the basement I got this nasty feeling that something horrible had just happened, I'm so worried Dawn; Willow knows better than to go out into Sunnydale by herself at night without telling anyone.  In this town that could mean certain to death to anyone including a witch, I'm getting more and more of a feeling that she didn't go out; I'm thinking more along the lines that she was taken."  The longer that Buffy talked the paler she became.  "Oh God Dawnie, I know something horrible has happened."  The girls silently held hands on the couch waiting for Xander and praying to whatever deity would listen for Willow's safety.


	2. A Cheeky Pawn

Title: A Broken Beginning Ch 2

Author: Nicki C. 

Email: Nimacu@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: "It's all been done before"- Barenaked Ladies.  I don't own Buffy.   Nor do I own the world of Harry Potter.  They both belong to Joss and J.K. 

Summery: Something happens that causes the Scoobies to head to England.

Feedback: Of Course I want it.

Setting:  Ok, this is set during the middle of September. Harry and the gang our in their sixth year and in the Buffy verse it's set after a couple of weeks after episode 7.3, after that it's AU.  Willow has been home recovering from the loss of blood.

            On the other side of the world, far away from our worried Scoobies, there were two boys playing a game…

            "Couldn't you let me win just once?"  Harry whined as another of his pieces stormed off of the chessboard.  "You're a disgrace to this noble game" Harry's pawn yelled up at him.  "And another thing Ron, why can't we play with pieces that don't talk?" Ron started laughing; "They're still mad at you for spell-o taping their mouths shut last week." 

 Ron loved playing Chess with Harry. Chess was the one thing Harry Potter, the Boy-who-lived was horrible at.  Harry couldn't play chess if his life depended on it, and at one time it had; but Ron had saved the day then.  Not that Ron was jealous; he was very content in the fact that his best friend was the most famous wizard of their time.  But hey, he was only a sixteen-year-old boy and when you find something that you can consistently humiliate your best friend at you go for it. 

"Check mate!" Ron started doing his famous "I won" dance. "I won, I won, I won, I won, I won, and you didn't."  Harry wasn't really sure where Ron had learned the little song and dance routine, but he'd started using it over the summer before they'd returned for their sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry; and it was getting really old, really fast.  "All right, I get it.  You won! "  Harry grumbled as he started to head for their room.  "Hey it's only eleven o'clock and it's a Saturday. It's too early for bed."  "I'm tired." Harry wasn't really that upset that he lost at chess, but he knew if he had to watch Ron dance in circles one more time, he'd say something he'd regret.  "Ok, I'll stop dancing. You know that nobody likes a sore loser?" Ron started to ask, but the moments the words were out Harry gripped his scar and fell to the ground in pain. 

"What's wrong?"  Ron was gripping Harry's shoulders trying to get him to sit up right.  The third part of their trio Hermione Granger who was sitting nearby studying while the two boys played chess was gripping Harry's hand trying to get him to relax.  The three of them were making quite a scene, and the whole Common Room was watching them.   "Get Dumbledore now!" Hermione instructed a fifth-year student Colin Creevy who was standing near by.  As soon as receiving the instructions the boy headed straight out of the room toward the headmaster's office.

Just as Colin returned with Professor Dumbledore Harry started to relax.  "I haven't felt pain and anger like that since last year when Voldemort discovered that the Prophecy had been broken.

 "Did you have any visions Harry?" Dumbledore asked. 

"Not that I can remember, just incredible pain. He must be near here and very        angry."

"Maybe we should continue this talk in private? Oh of course Miss Granger and Mr.Weasley can come." 

 "Like he'd ever be able to stop us," Ron thought.

But just as they were heading into the Headmaster's office, another professor came running up to them out of breath.  "The Dark Mark.." Professor McGonagall was out of breath from running, and couldn't seem to manage anything but those three words.  "The Dark Mark..," Again it seemed like she couldn't quite say what she wanted too.  "Spit it out woman" Dumbledore snapped.  McGonagall quickly regained some of her composure.  " The Dark Mark has appeared over the Gate."  She was finally able to say.  At this news Dumbledore turned to the three children and said "We're going to have to continue this discussion later, you three must go to your common room, and Ms. Granger and Mr. Weasley as Prefects I expect you to make sure that _all_ of your students stay there."  He then sent them on their way.

"Minerva, have you sent anyone down there to see what's going on?" Dumbledore asked as he was rushing through halls.  "No I thought it was better to alert you first." Dumbledore stopped for a moment and turned to the other Professor "Minerva I need you to get Severus and Remus and send them down to me immediately, and then I need you to make sure that all students are in their respective common rooms.  When you're done gather the staff."  She made a mental note of the instructions and headed to the dungeons to alert Severus.  

As Dumbledore headed towards the gate a million thoughts ran through his mind. "What am I going to find? Who am I going to find?  Will the others arrive in time?  Wouldn't it be faster and safer if the teachers could apperate?"  He often found that in times of stress inane questions popped into his head.  But he was over a hundred and running a mile in the middle of the night, who wouldn't want to apperate? Finally he was close enough to the gate to see that there was something lying on the other side of it.  Actually the closer he got he realized it was someone lying on the other side of it.  

Dumbledore wasn't really sure what to do, they're a chance that this could be a trap, but he didn't sense any evil.  The Dark Mark was starting to fade, that meant that it had to have been cast at least fifteen minutes ago. He looked closer at the body on the other side of the gate and noticed that it was lying in awkward position.  "Nobody conscious would ever lay like that, whoever's over there is hurt."  He spoke a few words that unlocked the gate and hurried out to see if the person was still alive.  

It was a woman, a young woman by the looks of her.  He felt for a pulse.  It was there but it was very weak.  Dumbledore quickly levitated her up, shut the gate and started heading back to the castle.  Halfway there he ran into the two professors that he had sent Minerva to get.  Severus and Remus started walking along side him as he led the body of the girl back to the castle.  "Who is she?" Severus asked.  "I don't know, I found her outside of the gate underneath the dark mark.  She's still alive; but barely.  I think she's some sort of message to us.  But what the message is we will have to wait to figure out after she's been taken to Madam Pomfrey. 

As soon as the three men and the unidentified woman arrived in the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey whisked the girl off muttering something about bringing in people who were barely alive in the middle of the night.  She worked long into the night on the girl aided by Severus and his potions.  But nothing worked; finally she gave up.  "I've used the antidote to everything dark spell that might have caused her unconscious state that I know of.  The only other thing that I can think of is that someone tried to use the killing curse on her and somehow she lived through it."  Dumbledore thought on this a moment.  "Harry is the only person I know who has lived after being hit by the curse; but Harry reflected the curse, she seems to have actually been hit, but still alive."  The other two wizards were sitting quietly by his side.  "Is she going to live?" Remus asked.  "I'm not sure, she's not getting any better.  But she's not getting any worse."

"Well does she have any Muggle identification?" Severus asked.  No one had thought to check.  Madame Pomfrey handle Dumbledore the women's clothing and he started to rifle through them.  On the inside of her jacket there was a tag that read "If found please return to Willow Rosenberg 1630 Revello Drive Sunnydale, California 90218.

A/N* Harry got the Headache at the exact time Buffy became sick in the basement.  I'm so proud of myself I even checked time zones!


	3. Snake's hate Competition

Title: A Broken Beginning Ch 3

Author: Nicki C. 

Email: Nimacu@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: "It's all been done before"- Barenaked Ladies.  I don't own Buffy.   Nor do I own the world of Harry Potter.  They both belong to Joss and J.K. 

Summery: Something happens that causes the Scoobies to head to England.

Feedback: Of Course I want it.

Setting:  Ok, this is set during the middle of September. Harry and the gang our in their sixth year and in the Buffy verse it's set after a couple of weeks after episode 7.3, after that it's AU.  Willow has been home recovering from the loss of blood.

AN* Ok big thanks go out to…

**alienbein and Akalea -******I'm glad you guys are interested, it keeps me inspired.

            "Has she shown up yet?" Xander asked as he entered the house.  But as soon as he saw the look on Buffy's face he knew the answer to the question.  Buffy stood up "We need a plan, we need to get out there and start looking, Xander and Dawn I want you two check out the Bronze and search the path between here and there.  I'll head out to the cemeteries.  Maybe she decided to go out hunting and forgot to let anybody know." As Buffy finished her instructions her brave façade started to fade.  She knew that Willow wouldn't do that, they knew that too.  But they needed hope. 

 "Xander, do you think we can depend on Anya for a little help?"

"I'm not sure, she's gone all vengeance demon again. What about Spike?

"I'll talk to him, but he's a little whacky with this whole "I've got a soul" thing"

"So it's just us then?"

"Probably"

"Someone needs to talk to Willy."

"I'll do that after I'm through with the cemeteries."

            "All right. We've got a plan.  We can work with a plan, lets get out there."  Buffy was trying to sound hopeful, and she thought it worked.  That is until Xander wrapped his arms around her in support.  "It's going to be ok Buff, we'll find her. She's going to be ok."  "How can you be so sure?" She asked.  He turned to look at with grim determination on his face "Because if Willow was dead, I'd know it.  I'd be able to feel it deep inside." He spoke as if that ended all consideration and they headed out.

            Buffy started searching through the cemeteries.  "Willow, Willow?"  There was no sign of her in any of them.  Buffy wouldn't have thought it possible but the longer she looked the worse she felt.  It was getting late and she hoped the Xander and Dawn were having better luck.  She decided to go and talk to Willy before heading over to see if Spike knew anything.

            The seedy little bar where Willy worked was completely empty.  Now Buffy knew for sure that something was going on. "Where is she?" Buffy demanded before throwing the bartender up against the wall.  "I know that you know something, you always know what's going on in this town."  "I swa.. swear slayer, I gots no idea" Willy was shaking as he answered.  "I'm not convinced, I've never seen this place as empty as it is tonight.  Something's going on and I want you to tell me now."  With every word she spoke her grip on the bartender got tighter.   "Alright, alright I'll tell you the only thing I know.  Your witch's little stunt last spring really pissed somebody off.  I'm not sure who it is, but he's powerful.  His arrival last night got all the demons in town quaking in their boots.  Word is he doesn't just want to be the big bad, he wants to be the _Only _bad."  Buffy slammed him into the wall one last time for good measure before quickly heading out of the bar.   

            Buffy had one more stop before she headed back to the house to meet up with Xander and Dawn.  "Spike, Spike?  Are you down here?" She called as she entered he basement of the new high school. He looked absolutely horrible, the burns from the cross were still on his chest and he had a new cut, it was shaped like a skull.  "So he's getting artistic," Buffy thought. "Slayer's come to pay her respects for the dearly departed."  Spike was sounding more like Drusilla every time Buffy saw him.  "I don't have time for games Spike, Willow's missing and I need to know if you can help.   "Slayer's missing something, she is.  Little red's gone away with the big bad wolf and nobody can find them."  "What do you know Spike?"  "Snakes don't like competition, no they definitely don't… I had a pet snake once, named him Tommy.  Really was a cute little…"  Buffy could see that Spike wasn't going to be any more help and time could be running out.

Meanwhile…

            Xander and Dawn were heading back from the Bronze and checking out the alleyways up and down the main street in town. 

 "Did you notice something odd tonight Dawn?"

 "Yeah, we didn't see a single vampire or demon."

"Everyone we saw was completely human.  In most towns that would be normal.  But in Sunnydale? There's always creatures of the dark lurking around here."

"Seems like too much of a coincidence for me, Willow disappears along with all of the Demons and Vampires in town?"

"We should see if Anya is still around town"

"Yeah, lets head over to her apartment."

About twenty minutes later the duo arrived.  "Is anybody there?" Xander was knocking furiously on the door.  He didn't want to admit it, but he was praying that Anya was in there and that she was ok.  There wasn't any answer so Xander knocked louder, suddenly a very frazzled and scared looking Anya opened the door and quickly pulled them inside.  "What in the hell are you two doing here right now?  Do you know you could get me killed if somebody saw me opening that door?"  "Willow's missing and so are all of the Demons in town" Xander rushed out and soon as Anya finished talking.  "Wait a minute what do you mean you could have been killed opening the door."  

"There's something out there and it's killing off all of the Demons, the word on the street is to stay in hiding."

 "Of course, it's Buffy. She's been doing it for years." Dawn said exasperatingly. 

 "No this is something else and it's strong.  It's already gotten to D'Hoffryn."

"So something out there is killing off the bad things, this is of the good right?" 

"No it's not out to kill the bad things, it's out there killing off the competition."

            "It's too dangerous for me to have you guys here, I need you to leave.  If you don't see me for awhile, it's because I'm in hiding."  Anya pushed the other two out the door and locked it behind them.  

"That was definitely weird, I've never seen Anya that scared." Xander murmured.

"We need to get home and tell Buffy what's going on and see if she's found anything."

            The two left the apartment building and headed home.


	4. A Peeping Tom Prefect

Title: A Broken Beginning Ch 4

Author: Nicki C. 

Email: Nimacu@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: "It's all been done before"- Barenaked Ladies.  I don't own Buffy.   Nor do I own the world of Harry Potter.  They both belong to Joss and J.K. 

Summery: Something happens that causes the Scoobies to head to England.

Feedback: I used to think that I didn't need it and it wasn't very important, but then I got some and I really liked it, in fact the more feedback I got the more I wanted. I think you get the idea.

Setting:  Ok, this is set during the middle of September. Harry and the gang are in their sixth year and in the Buffy verse it's set after a couple of weeks after episode 7.3, after that it's AU.  Willow has been home recovering from the loss of blood.

AN** This we'll be the first chapter with any major revamping

**Laura-** It probably will be, but it's going to be a lot different from some of the others out there.  I like that ship' but I'm trying to unique.

"Can you believe that Harry?  The death eaters left a girl right outside the gates to Hogwarts." Ron exclaimed as soon as they were back in their room.  "I know it's frightening to think that they can come that close without anyone noticing." The night before immediately after they had returned to their common room, they had left again armed with the Marauders map and wearing Harry's invisibility cloak.  There was absolutely no way that they were going to just sit there and wait to find out what happened, and they knew that no matter how against the idea Hermione was she would never turn them in.  Both boys were exhausted from their adventure and fell asleep without further conversation.    

Hermione had been sleeping on the couch in the common room waiting for the Ron and Harry to return from their little adventure.  At first she'd been waiting there to yell at them for taking advantage of her position as Prefect and at Ron for being a disappointment to his position.  But as the night wore on and they hadn't returned she'd begun to worry; they were always getting themselves into some kind of trouble or another; they seemed to attract it.  But in the end the need to fall asleep had won out.

By the time Hermione had woken up it was broad daylight and there were people leaving the common room to head to breakfast. "Those two had better be back here by now, and I hope they don't think I'm going to let them sleep in." Hermione thought as she headed up to the boys room.  "Everyone had better be decent in there because I'm opening the door" Hermione yelled right before she entered the room.  Ron and Harry were still asleep and everyone else had already headed to breakfast.  "Wow I must have slept later than I thought."  Just as she was heading over to shake Harry awake Seamus walked out of the bathroom only wearing a towel.  "Bloody hell Hermione, what are you doing in here?"  Up to this point she would have sworn that Seamus was incapable of blushing, but that was definitely an interesting shade of pink on his cheeks.  "I'm a prefect, as long as I announce myself I can enter any Gryffindor room." Pointing to Harry and Ron. A flustered Seamus argued  "Well I don't think it counts because these two are sleeping like the dead."  A sly grin appeared on Hermione's face "You do realize that we're having an entire conversation and you're only wearing a bath towel?" she asked.  Seamus started mumbling something about perverted Peeking Tom prefects as he gathered his clothes and headed back into the bathroom.  

"HARRY AND RON GET UP!" Hermione shouted while she was standing in between their beds.  Harry mumbled something about it being Sunday and Ron slept right through it.  She kept yelling at them and when that didn't work, she started trying to bribe them to wake up.  When nothing she did work, she sat on the side of Ron's bed to think.  Suddenly it occurred to her there was one thing that would wake Ron up.  She leaned in close to his ear.  "Ron, Viktor's here.  We're going to going to be making out by the lake if you need me."   "What, huh? Viktor? I thought you were only friends?"  Ron was slowly waking up.  

"What are you doing in our room at this ungodly hour 'Mione?"

"It's already 9:30 and I want to know what happened last night."

"Can't it wait until we get up?"

"No.  I'm going downstairs, I want you to wake Harry up and meet me in the common room in ten minutes.  If you don't show up, I'm coming back and I'm bringing my birthday present from the twins with me." 

Leaving Ron with those instructions, Hermione headed to her room to dress quickly before meeting the boys.  "Harry get up" Ron not so gently shook him.  "Hermione wants us downstairs in ten minutes and she seems serious about it."  "Oh alright, we do need to tell her about the girl."  Seamus walked in on the end of the sentence.  "What girl are you talking about, Hermione?  Bloody pervert she is, staring at me in my towel, coming into our room in the morning, knowing that's when we get dressed… " Seamus continued complaining about her as he headed out of the room.  "What was that about?" Harry asked Ron.  "I don't have a clue." Ron replied.

Fifteen minutes later in a corner of the common room the three teens were talking.  "A girl. Wow I wonder what that was supposed to mean?"  Hermione could tell there was some researching to be done and even though she knew it was pathetic she was excited.  "What was her name again and what did she look like" she couldn't help but bleed every detail out of the boys.  Harry answered "Willow Rosenberg, she had hair just as red as Ron's, and because of the bruising on her face I couldn't really tell anything else about her.  Madam Pomfrey probably would have gotten suspicious if we had gotten too close.  That women is almost as good as Dumbledore when it comes to sensing people around her."  As the trio continued their conversation they headed down to breakfast.

In other parts of the castle one Severus Snape was standing watch over the tiny woman in the bed. He couldn't really tell how old she was; she looked so young lying there helpless.  His guess was somewhere between 19 and 25, but it didn't really matter how old she was if they couldn't figure out how to save her.  He kept trying to figure out why he didn't see this coming.  He was supposed to be one of Voldemort's right hand men, but until he felt the Dark Mark burn last night, he'd had no idea what was going on.  He had a horrible feeling that Voldemort knew he was a spy.  He was going to have to discuss this with Dumbledore, because if he knew than that changed everything. Severus sat back down beside her bed; "Someone's got to be here if she wakes up."


	5. A Kyrgyzstan Adventure

Title: A Broken Beginning Ch 5

Author: Nicki C. 

Email: Nimacu@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: "It's all been done before"- Barenaked Ladies.  I don't own Buffy.   Nor do I own the world of Harry Potter.  They both belong to Joss and J.K. 

Summery: Something happens that causes the Scoobies to head to England.

Feedback: I used to think that I didn't need it and it wasn't very important, but then I got some and I really liked it, in fact the more feedback I got the more I wanted. I think you get the idea.

Setting:  Ok, this is set during the middle of September. Harry and the gang are in their sixth year and in the Buffy verse it's set after a couple of weeks after episode 7.3, after that it's AU.  Willow has been home recovering from the loss of blood.

He sat huddled by the fire trying to stay warm. This morning if someone had asked him if he'd be in the middle of Kyrgyzstan, a country until today he'd never heard of, he'd have said they were crazy.  But here he was, in the middle of the Tien Shan range; looking for what was supposed to be Voldemort's ultra-secret hideout.  But all they'd managed to find was a few mountain goats and an empty cave that might at one time been able to provide shelter to a large group of dark wizards.  But he'd bet fifty galleons they had never been there at all.  

The day had started out so nicely too. He'd been in Los Angeles, California for almost a week investigating another lead on the Dark Lord's whereabouts that had turned out to be false.  The night before he'd written out his report about what he'd found or in this case hadn't found. Then when then when he was eating breakfast this morning an owl had arrived telling him he was to stay in California on other business until further notice.  Apparently they thought there was still a good chance that Voldemort would be hiding in a little town that sat on top of a Hellmouth.  Apparently due to mystic convergence it made it almost impossible for other wizards to detect what was going on in the town; thus making it the perfect place for the Dark Lord to hide.  

Charlie had arrived in Sunnydale late in the morning.  He hadn't been very sure about where to start looking in the town; the only advice he'd been given was be on the look out for anything out of the ordinary.  He had decided that he needed to go a place where he could hear the local gossip.  He wasn't that familiar with American Muggle's but he'd noticed that in Los Angeles there were lots of these little restaurants called 'Coffee Houses' and that they were always packed with people.  So when he'd arrived in Sunnydale his first stop was the coffee shop in town.

Charlie shook himself out of his thoughts, this wasn't how today was supposed to turn out, it seemed like he said that to himself a lot these days.  He knew that joining in the fight against Voldemort was the right thing to do, but sometimes he wished he could just be back in Romania, he'd trade anything to be back there working with the dragons.   It was funny how life was full of Catch-22's; he'd taken the job in Romania so that he could make a name for himself apart from his family; he didn't want to be just another Weasley.  But the fact that he was a Weasley is what brought him home and to the Order of the Phoenix; he had to do his part in the fight against Voldemort; to protect his family. In the beginning he'd been able to stay in Romania, but he'd known when he volunteered it might not always be that way.

"I'm getting homesick, I must be really tired," Charlie said to himself.  He put out the fire and headed into his tent. "Why must we use Muggle tents?" He thought to himself as he lay wide awake in his sleeping bag.  He knew that it was important that he use the least amount of magic possible while hunting Voldemort; after all being able to detect magic goes both ways and his job was to locate Voldemort not to catch him. Still a few basic comforts would be nice.  "Time to think about something pleasant, that'll help me get to sleep."  As he fell settled down his thoughts drifted to someone he'd met earlier in the day while we he was watching the coffee shop.  

He'd been sitting in a booth watching and listening to all of the occupants of the little restaurant; considering the town sat on a Hellmouth all of the conversations were all incredibly pleasant and vapid.  He wondered how bad could this place be if everyone was so happy?  And just as he was about to give up the hope of anything-extraordinary coming out of his visit, she walked in.  He could swear the moment he saw her, his heart stopped.  She was beautiful; he knew he had to meet her.  Quickly he scanned the people she'd walked in with for anyone who could be a jealous boyfriend.  Luckily the only person who sat down with her was a young brown-haired girl.  He'd checked his breath on his palm, checked his hair in his spoon and got ready to head towards her table but as he was getting up he realized that the woman was getting up from her table and walking towards him. 

"Not from around here are you?" She had said.   He hadn't been able to come up with a witty answer or a coherent thought so he just sat there like a stupid git staring at her. 

"Anybody from where you're from ever tell you it isn't polite to stare?"  She asked 

"Yeah, sorry 'bout that, my name's Charlie, and yours?"

"Buffy."

"I'm from England, I'm here on some business."

"What kind of business would bring an Englishman to Sunnydale?" Well she certainly didn't seem shy with the questions.

"I'm doing some research."

"I bet I can guess what your researching." She'd been flirting with him he couldn't believe it.

"Why don't I take you out to dinner tonight and I'll let you guess to your heart's content"

Charlie remembered hearing her mutter something about it being daylight so he couldn't be that bad.  She'd looked up at him then smiled and agreed to meet him at the Bistro for dinner at five.  It really was too bad that he'd never been able to make it; as soon as he'd arrived back in his hotel room an owl had arrived urging him to apperate immediately to Kyrgyzstan.  She'd seemed special; hopefully they'd get a chance to meet again someday.  

"Wishful thinking" Charlie murmured as he finally fell asleep.


	6. Speculations are for Fools

Title: A Broken Beginning Ch 6

Author: Nicki C. 

Email: Nimacu@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: "It's all been done before"- Barenaked Ladies.  I don't own Buffy.   Nor do I own the world of Harry Potter.  They both belong to Joss and J.K.  Ok as far as I know, the American characters are of my own invention.

Summery: Willow's missing and Dumbledore knows where to find her.  Ok I think that's better than my former summery. 

Feedback: I used to think that I didn't need it and it wasn't very important, but then I got some and I really liked it, in fact the more feedback I got the more I wanted. I think you get the idea.

Setting:  Ok, this is set during the middle of September. Harry and the gang are in their sixth year and in the Buffy verse it's set after a couple of weeks after episode 7.3, after that it's AU.  Willow has been home recovering from the loss of blood before her kidnapping.

A/N* I now have my very own beta-reader so there won't be as many typos and mistakes as there were in chapters one through four

Thanks to..

Kristy Marie- I'm glad you like it, I have every intention of continuing the story. 

**alienbeing-** Thank-you very much for being the world's greatest beta-reader!!!

**Wild-** Thanks for the review, and as of right now that's exactly what I have planned.

**EJG-** I think he's kind of scared of her.  I've never really pictured him as the kind of wizard to put up with someone else ending the world.

            "Do you think she's a witch?" Remus Lupin asked Dumbledore as they sat in his office discussing the girl that was at that moment lying in the hospital wing under the watch of Severus Snape. "At this moment we can't really be sure, we do know that she never attended Hogwarts.." Dumbledore was going to continue until he was interrupted by Remus "but that's obvious because she's an American."  "I sent an international owl to the American Academy of Witchcraft and Wizardry, asking if they knew anything about her.  But they haven't answered yet, it'll probably be a few hours before they do." Dumbledore explained to Remus.  "But what do you think Albus, is she a witch or could the Death Eaters have gone to all that trouble to deliver a Muggle to our doorstop?" Remus asked.  "Speculations are for fools Remus, it's best if I keep mine to myself until we know more."  Frustrated Remus decided to head back to his rooms, "Let me know as soon as you get any news, I'm off to get some much missed sleep."

On the other side of the Ocean one Professor F. Glen Mooreland; headmaster of the American Academy of Witchcraft and Wizardry had received Albus Dumbledore's letter and had called his Assistant Headmaster; Helena VanPlank into his office.  

"What do you think we should tell them Helena?"

"We could try telling them the truth"

"Yeah, that'll be great.  Then the MUN (Magical United Nations) will have my wand."

"Dumbledore will understand"

"Yeah I can just imagine the conversation.  Hey Alby! How's it going, yeah I know the girl you guys have there.  No she didn't graduate from the AAWW (pronounced Awe for short).  Why did you miss her? He'll ask. Well sir we aren't really sure, our book doesn't register births on the Hell mouth, and we've always dealt with it in the past by randomly checking the Sunnydale Junior High School for unusual activity.  Then he'll want to know why we didn't find her.  Then would you like to know what I'll tell him Helena?  Well I'll tell you, I'll have to tell him that I have no idea!  Then he'll ask when I found out about her, and I'll have to say sometime around her seventeenth birthday when she re-souled a vampire without a wand.  Then he'll ask why we didn't report someone as powerful as her to the American Ministry of Magic.  Then it'll be a real winner when I tell him that reason I didn't report it is because I didn't want to get in trouble in the first place." The headmaster was out of breath after that speech.

"I'm sure he'll be very understanding."

"Yeah, sure until he asks what she's been up to since then.  Because then I'll have to tell him how she single-handedly and without a wand almost ended the world without us noticing."

"It's hard to detect magic on the Hellmouth no matter how strong the spell is."

"The fact is, if this gets out then there's going to be an investigation, then everyone will find out how many "Mistakes" have been made concerning recruiting wizards and witches in Sunnydale!"

"Yes there was that incident with the cheerleader and her daughter.  But we're also very lucky that Sunnydale comes with it's own bonifide Slayer."

"She's covered our Asses several times without her even knowing about it until now."

"Now, Now Glennie there's no reason to swear, and getting yourself all upset won't do anyone any good either.  When it comes down to it, we're going to have to tell him.  If Voldemort is involved then Dumbledore has a right to know exactly who she is."

"I suppose, and I hope he figures out why Voldemort went after her.  We have lots of problems in America, but Voldemort's not one of them yet and I hope it stays that way as long as possible."

            As the two Professor's finished their conversation they prepared to travel to Hogwarts immediately through the Intercontinental Floo Network.  As they were about to step into the fire a very nervous Glen turned to Helena and asked "Are you ready to rumble with the greatest wizard ever born?" She gave an exasperated sigh, as though she thought he was overeating just a little. "As ready as I'll ever be" she replied.  They both walked into the fire and shouted "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry; Great Britain."  
            

As many as wizard had learned before, they should have been more specific. The whole Gryffindor common room that had been previously bustling with activity stood still as stone watching as the two American Professors stepped out of the fireplace.  Hermione, Ron and Harry were sitting on the couch directly in front of the fireplace, and Hermione was the first to comment on their befuddled new arrivals.  "Where did you come from?  People can't travel to Hogwarts by Floo Powder; this fireplace isn't registered to handle travel!" Hermione was astounded, how to handle unexpected visitors had not been a chapter in "Prefects Guide to Performing Perfectly".  "Young lady, how we ended up in this part of the castle is as much a mystery to us as it is to you, but we must see Professor Dumbledore at once, we're here on urgent business." Professor Mooreland informed the distraught prefect.  Hermione quickly regained her composure and asked the two adults to follow her.  As they were leaving the common room Ron looked to Harry who was already on his way to retrieve the invisibility cloak.  "This visit must have something to do with the American girl they found last night," Ron thought to himself as he waited for Harry to return.  

Within five minutes they had left the common room with the Cloak under their arms and were gaining on Hermione and the two strangers.  "Quick Ron let's get this over us, I can see them entering Dumbledore's office."  Harry urged Ron.  The boys quickly put on the cloak, but weren't quick enough to arrive at the office door before it closed. "Bloody Hell Harry, how are we going to find out what they are talking about now?"  Harry didn't miss a beat; he pulled out his wand, pointed it at the ceiling and exclaimed "Flyvivus Movalus" it was a spell to tell what was going on in the closest room to where you pointed the wand, he'd found it in the book he'd received from the twins for his sixteenth birthday "Sneaky Spells for the Specifically Snoopy".  "Wow Harry your turning into quite the accomplished spy," Ron whispered as they began to watch what was going on in the room. 

The room contained only Dumbledore at the moment, "Where are they?" Ron asked.  "The spell has a two minute delay," Harry whispered to Ron. "Now shush!" As Harry said that Hermione walked into the room quickly followed by the two strangers.

Professor Dumbledore looked up from his desk at their arrival.  "Miss Granger I know you're amazing but how did you manage to find both of the Headmaster's from the American Academy of Witchcraft and Wizardry before I did?  Considering I have been waiting for news from them all day." Dumbledore asked.  "Well Professor, they both came through the Floo Network into the Gryffindor common room."  Hermione answered proudly.  It seemed to Harry and Ron that the moment the word Headmaster was spoken Hermione's face had lit up. 

"Welcome to Hogwarts Professor's Mooreland and VanPlank, I only wish I could welcome you at a better time." Dumbledore greeted the two headmasters.  "Mooreland, I can assume since you chose to arrive in person that you have pertinent information in response to my inquiry?" Dumbledore asked the male professor he'd welcomed.  "Yes we do, but shouldn't we discuss it where younger ears can't hear?" Mooreland said while motioning towards Hermione.  "Hmm.. I suppose that would normally be the case, but this is a very special young lady.  None the less we do need to wait for the arrival of three of my most trusted Professor's." Dumbledore concluded.  He then turned to her and said "Miss Granger could you please fetch Professors Snape, Lupin, and McGonagall? I think that at this moment you'll be able to find them all in the Hospital wing, no matter what they may have planned to do this afternoon.  You may return with them, and on your way out I would appreciate it if you could inform your counterparts to remove the spell from my room and… Harry and Ron's gaze lowered from the ceiling as Hermione groped for and removed the invisibility cloak (She reached underneath the picture on the ceiling until she felt something).  "Professor Dumbledore said for you to come to his office as soon as you remove that spell from the ceiling." Hermione pompously told them before rushing off on her urgent business.

"Well should we go up or run for our lives?" Ron asked Harry "I really wish Hermione hadn't interrupted us before we finished watching them, but I suppose it's Dumbledore so we'll be fine.  As long as he doesn't tell Professor Snape about it." Harry Answered.  Harry told the statue "Orange Licorice" and both boys headed up the stairs into Dumbledore's office.

"Hello Harry and Ron, I'm surprised to see both of you awake today, after last night's vigil in the hospital wing I would have thought that you'd be asleep until early this evening"

"Well Hermione woke us up first thing this…" Ron gulped and finished his sentence "wait you knew we were there?" 

"Did you really expect anything less of me Mr. Weasley?"

"No"

"Well Boys, since you know this involves Voldemort; and things that involve Voldemort eventually involve you, I think that it's in your best interest to stay and listen to what these two fine professor's have to say about Miss Rosenberg." Dumbledore told Harry and Ron.  The American Headmaster look astounded at this development "Are you sure it's a good idea to involve students in this?" He asked Dumbledore.  "These aren't just any students Professor Mooreland, this is Harry Potter, the only wizard alive to five confrontations with Voldemort himself."  Mooreland took this chance to look at Harry's forehead; "You'll have to beg my pardon Dumbledore, I had no idea.  And I'm going to assume that this is his famous sidekick Ron Weasley." The man turned to Ron. Ron glared at the man, he wasn't sure weather to be flattered for being called famous or to be offended for being called a sidekick.  "Yes, I'm Ron." He answered the man.  "Well all we can do now is wait for Miss Granger to return with the other Professors." Dumbledore's comment ended the conversation.  They all sat in silence as they waited for their four companions to arrive.

Soon enough the other's arrived.  Severus looking extremely bothered.  "This had better be good the girl could awake at any moment.  She shouldn't be alone when she wakes up in a strange place." Severus exclaimed to the room.  "Really Sev, you shouldn't worry so, Madame Pomfrey is right there if she wakes up." Remus told him, however he had to mentally agree that the sooner this discussion was over the better it would be.   Professor McGonagall pushed her glasses up her nose and turned to the two Americans "Can you please tell us about the girl we found last night, the curiosity is killing the cats; so to speak" She spoke firmly to the other Headmasters.

"Before you two start telling your story, I think it goes beyond saying that whatever is said in this room is said in the strictest confidence.  Some things that are said are never meant to be heard by Governmental ears." Dumbledore looked at Mooreland Seriously.  Mooreland knew of the Great Disagreement between Dumbledore and Cornelius Fudge over the re-rising of the Dark Lord two years ago.  And although Fudge now accepted that Voldemort had risen again; he could see that Dumbledore still didn't trust him.  However to Mooreland all that this meant is that where was no way that Dumbledore would report him the MUN.

"She's from Sunnydale, California.  A little town that sets on the Hellmouth; also known as a place of mystical convergence.." He was going to continue explaining what the Hellmouth was when Professor Lupin interrupted him.

"Any Wizard past their sixth year knows what the Hellmouth is, what we want to know is who is she? And more importantly what is she?"

"She's a wand less witch, she's never been formally trained in Magic. We can't track or record magical births on the Hellmouth and somehow we missed her through our other measures of locating potential wizards and witches. We discovered her four years ago when our contact on the Hellmouth found out she had resouled a vampire.  Since then I have been personally keeping track of her."

"Why didn't you start her training then Professor Mooreland?" Dumbledore asked

"Honestly, I was coward, I would have risked losing my job if American Ministry of Magic had learned that I'd let a witch powerful enough to resoul a vampire without a wand slip through the cracks.  Instead I watched her grow more powerful with each passing year.  For the first couple of years I wasn't worried at all about her turning to Dark Magic."

"Why?" McGonagall asked

"She worked beside three slayers and a watcher.  Slayers are the epitome of everything that is good in the world; they're there to fight the darkness.  In my own mind I justified not telling by saying it was for the common good, she worked very well with the slayer and rumors can held to be true, in their time together they conquered more evil then all of the American Aurors could have combined.  But she changed, her slayer died for the second time and she started diving into darker magic.  Last year she brought the slayer, a girl named Buffy Summers, back to life after four months in the grave.  I had hoped then that things would return to normal.  But again this spring someone close to her was murdered; her lover."

"What did she do then?" Harry Interrupted only to get a stern look from all six professors.

"She killed a man and she almost ended the world, she would have succeeded in fact if she hadn't been stopped by a childhood friend." Mooreland sighed as he finished his tale

"Why didn't you tell someone and try to stop her?" Severus asked

"As you know we can't detect magic on the Hellmouth, any information we get about Ms. Rosenberg is at it's best a week or two old.  By the time we found out what had happened it was already over.  And four the past five months all of her activities have come to a complete halt.  To the best of our knowledge she spent some time with a former watcher in England and then returned home."

"Is this slayer that you mentioned perhaps the slayer that's known as "The Girl who Died. Twice?" Dumbledore wasn't really asking a question, it was more like he was stating the obvious.  "I've heard stories of her, she was expelled from the protection of the watcher's council wasn't she?  This girl would be the one always described as "the red headed witch" in the stories."  

"Yes that's the one, I suppose we could go on all afternoon comparing stories we've heard of the girl and her group of friends but time is short and many of them aren't suitable for younger ears."

"Yes of course, and thank you for your help. Time is short and there are many things that need done and said.  I assure you that the information you gave us will remain private." Dumbledore looked at the Gryffindor trio as he said the last part.  As they all stood up to leave Dumbledore asked Professor McGonagall to show the American's to the kitchens so that they could have something to eat before heading back to AAWW.  When everyone but Severus and Remus had left Dumbledore, they turned to him and both asked at once "What are you going to do now?"

"Well men, I must immediately contact Arthur Weasley so that he can send one of his men to protect the girl while she's here at Hogwarts.  Then I'm off to pay a visit to the Slayer."  After both men nodded their approval at his actions he left the room. He hoped that Weasley, the man who was in currently in charge of all wizards working in the fight against Voldemort would be able to send one of his best.  As he wrote the letter he couldn't help thinking how finding and defeating Voldemort would have been so much easier if Fudge would committed to it sooner.  He still wasn't doing enough in the fight, he expected the Order of the Phoenix to handle it all and thought that he was giving a great allowance just letting Arthur Weasley to be the one in charge of sending Great Britain's finest wizards looking for Voldemort.  A nation without a committed leader could fall at any moment.  Dumbledore sincerely hoped that Fudge's indifference would prevent him from being appointed again.  "Wishes are for fools, plans inspire action" he mumbled to himself as he sent the owl off to Arthur.


	7. The Answer Man

Title: A Broken Beginning Ch 7

Author: Nicki C. 

Email: Nimacu@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: "It's all been done before"- Barenaked Ladies.  I don't own Buffy.   Nor do I own the world of Harry Potter.  They both belong to Joss and J.K. 

Summery: Something happens that causes the Scoobies to head to England.

Feedback: I used to think that I didn't need it and it wasn't very important, but then I got some and I really liked it, in fact the more feedback I got the more I wanted. I think you get the idea.

Setting:  Ok, this is set during the middle of September. Harry and the gang are in their sixth year and in the Buffy verse it's set after a couple of weeks after episode 7.3, after that it's AU.  Willow has been home recovering from the loss of blood.

A/N* This is a really short chapter but it had to be done.

A/N* My family is moving so it might be awhile before I get to update again, but I will be working on chapter 8 and *Gasp* writing them by hand until our computer gets set up again.

Thanks to:

Wild-  I'm glad you like the story, they're definitely going to be some, but it'll be a little while yet. 

**Angeleyes-**  Read below and I'm glad you like this story, it makes me happy.

                    Buffy walked into the house to find Dawn and Xander already there.  "Did you find her?" She asked immediately.  But she already knew the answer; if they had found her she'd have been with them in the living room. 

"No Buff, but we discover some information that might help us find her," Xander said.  

"I did too; but tell me what you found first."

"Well, all the Demons in town seem to be in hiding.  We went to talk to Anya and she said that D'Hoffryn had been killed." Xander informed her

"Anya said that new Bad is killing off all the little bads so it doesn't have competition." Dawn added.

"So what did you find out Buffy?" Xander asked

"Basically the same thing, all the Demons are in hiding because they're afraid of this new Bad, but no one seems to know what he is.  Willy says he heard that the Bad considers Willow a threat and that's why she was taken." Buffy stated

"Well why would he take Willow when he's killed everyone else?" Dawn asked

Buffy and Xander both looked at her with grave faces, "Dawnie we don't know that he didn't just kill her too." Buffy quietly told her. 

"We don't know anything yet," Xander added.  

"Well then we need to do something!" Dawn demanded. 

"Yes we do!" agreed Buffy.  "What are going to do guys?" Xander asked.

"Call Giles" They both answered at the same time.

          Fifteen Minutes later Buffy was on the phone with a Transatlantic call to her former Watcher Rupert Giles; Giles to everyone in Sunnydale.  As Buffy explained everything that had happened in the last six hours, Xander and Dawn could here Giles exclaiming lots of, "My word's," and, "Oh dear's."  As Buffy finished the call they started questioning her.

"What'd he say?"

"Is he on his way here yet?"

"Does he know what happened?"

          Buffy looked stressed as she answered "He said Demon activity all over the England is also at an all time low, he doesn't know what's going on and he'd catching the first plane back here." She gave Xander and Dawn time to digest what they'd heard.

"Ok, once Giles gets here we'll figure out what happened." Buffy told them

"Yeah we always find the answers when Giles is here." Dawn added trying to sound hopeful.

"Yep, Giles is the answers Man." Xander agreed

"Well there's not really much we can do tonight, we should go to bed, we'll figure this out in the morning." Buffy told them.

"Yeah everything will look better in the morning." Xander agreed.

    Dawn looked at both of them, no matter what they were saying she knew they were just as scared as she was.  They didn't know where Willow was, they didn't know where to start looking and Giles wouldn't be there until tomorrow afternoon. As Xander settled down on the couch the girls headed up to their rooms each destined to wrestle with their own nightmares.

   As Xander lay on the couch that night millions of memories of Willow entered his mind.  He thought about how they'd met so many years ago, about how she and Jessie would bicker constantly.  He remembered when they'd first met Buffy and the three of had become the original Scoobies. It seemed so long ago that they'd decided to fight the bad things that crept in the night with Buffy.  It had cost them so much, they'd lost so much.  He'd almost lost Willow for good that spring and now it looked like he might have.  But he'd knew that if he had to do it over again, he wouldn't change anything.  He just wished that he knew where Wills was and that she was safe.  Xander fitfully fell asleep as dawn approached.

    Upstairs Buffy who had been tossing and turning in her sleep awoke crying.  She had been dreaming about Willow.  In the Dream Buffy had been following Willow through a castle, Buffy had been screaming at her to slow down; but Willow didn't hear her.  They'd kept going in circles. Willow seemed very lost, near the end of the dream Buffy was horse from screaming and she sat down on the floor crying and watched Willow leave her sight.  That was when she'd awoken.  She didn't understand the dream at all, she wasn't even sure if it was a regular nightmare or a "slayer dream".  When Buffy fell back asleep it was already light out.


	8. Weasley Letters

Notice: You will definitely want to re-read this.  It's the most changed.

Title: A Broken Beginning Ch 8

Author: Nicki C. 

Email: Nimacu@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: "It's all been done before"- Barenaked Ladies.  I don't own Buffy.   Nor do I own the world of Harry Potter.  They both belong to Joss and J.K. 

Summery: Something happens that causes the Scoobies to head to England.

Feedback: I used to think that I didn't need it and it wasn't very important, but then I got some and I really liked it, in fact the more feedback I got the more I wanted. I think you get the idea.

Setting:  Ok, this is set during the middle of September. Harry and the gang are in their sixth year and in the Buffy verse it's set after a couple of weeks after episode 7.3, after that it's AU.  Willow has been home recovering from the loss of blood.

A/N* Sorry this took so long; I've been really busy with work and unpacking.  And then there was Valentine's Day.  I got really distracted.

Thanks to… 

Wild- This one's about three times as long.  I honestly enjoy writing the longer chapters better too. 

Setting: Order of the Phoenix Headquarters 

        In a crowded study in London a Redheaded man sat behind a desk looking at all the papers covering it, he began to pick them up muttering "I'll worry about paperwork after he's caught." Just as he'd finished shoving all of the papers into his bottom desk drawer an owl flew in the open window above his head.  "Great; more mail! He said to himself."

"Well what do we have here? Aren't you Dumbledore's owl?" He detached the folded paper from the owl.  The owl looked at him with expectant eyes.  "There's water and food on top of that shelf, he pointed to some bowls on top of a book shelf.  He watched the owl drink for a few moments before he remembered the letter in his hand.  He opened it and read:

_Dear Arthur._

_            We recently received a visit outside our gates from a group of Death Eaters and they left a guest at Hogwarts courtesy of Voldemort.  The woman that he left here is a very powerful American Witch.  She is currently unconscious. We have no idea if we need to guard her from Voldemort or if we need to guard ourselves from her.  Although we normally have more than enough qualified wizards here, I will shortly be leaving for a trip to America, and considering everything else I think it necessary that you send one or two of your best men to help us.  If what we heard about her is true she could have powers that rival Voldemort himself.  Please respond quickly as my trip to the United States in imminent._

_Sincerely_

Albus Dumbledore 

Arthur stared at the paper on his desk thoughtfully.  He casually picked up a paperweight from the desk and started tossing in back and forth between his hands.  "Who should I send, who should I send?"  He chanted to himself.  He could think of several possibilities.  But in his heart he knew that there were only two men he thought capable enough and that he trusted enough to protect Hogwarts.  The only problem was that they weren't speaking to each other.  He didn't think there was any way to convince them to go any place where the other would be.  Pride wouldn't let them forgive each other and it wouldn't let them work with each other…

Arthur thought back to an evening two months earlier at the Burrow.

_Percy and Charlie were sitting on the Davenport glaring at each other late one night when he'd walked in after apperating home from a long day work.  "What is the matter with you two?" He'd stupidly asked.  They'd only continued to sulk. It irritated him that they were wasting precious free time sulking "You're both home and that happens so rarely since Percy  moved back home and  Charlie joined in the fight, shouldn't you be enjoying each other's company?" He continued, but then Charlie had broken in. _

_ "I shouldn't be here now, but I needed to talk to him.  I needed to know!"_

_"You NEEDED to know!" Percy yelled in reply. Arthur had never seen Percy this emotional before. "You WANTED to know why I haven't gone and volunteered to get myself killed fighting in a war that the minister of magic barely even acknowledges."_

_"You Traitor! Bill, Fred, George and I are out there risking our lives to make our world safe and you dare bring that idiot's name into the conversation in front of our father._

_How is your precious Minister helping us now? I don't know why I expected anything better of you. You've always hid behind your books and your papers; a real Wizard would be out there protecting and defending everything his family stands for. A real wizard would have been out there doing it from the beginning, instead of hiding behind the ministry waiting for an official annoucement"_

_"How dare you accuse of me of being a traitor.  You think that I don't care about what your doing.  How in the bloody hell is my being out there going to make things any different?" Percy had paused for a moment with a glare in his eye colder than Arthur had ever seen. " Yeah because when I end up dead like the rest of you will, it'll make things all right!" Percy's voice had been dripping with sarcasm._

_"At least your life would have meant something!" Charlie snapped as he apperated out of the room._

_Arthur tried to say something to Percy but he stormed out of the room. He'd stood there looking at the spot where his two children had stood wondering how long the animosity had been building.  Were he and Molly too busy trying to save the world to notice their family falling apart? Had it really ever been back together since the night Percy left home.?  He just didn't know, he'd slowly climbed the stairs to join Molly in bed promising himself he'd try and fix things in the morning when he wasn't as tired._

_But in the morning while he was eating breakfast Percy had entered the room declaring he had decided to join in the fight against You Know Who.  And would take any training or assignment his father would give him.  Arthur tried to convince him he didn't have to fight just because of what Charlie had said but it didn't do any good. _

        Percy had turned out to be an exceptionally skilled wizard, it seemed all the high scores he'd earned in school were an accurate description of his abilities.  He had a way of being cold, calculating and perfect that could scare even Arthur at times. Combined with Charlie's passion for the fight the two would make a perfect match.  But in theory only since they refused to work together and as far as he knew they hadn't seen each other since that night.  But they would have to get over it, Hogwarts needed protecting and he would only send his best.

       Arthur decided that if he could get them there they'd figure out the rest.  He'd have to order them both there without the other one knowing about it. But it would be for the best.  He settled down to write the letters.

_Charlie,_

_            You're needed at Hogwarts immediately, you may apperate via Hogsmeade. They have a witch there that it is vital for you to protect. You'll receive further instructions upon your arrival at Hogwarts._

_Your Father,_

_Arthur Weasley_

Percy letter went much the same way.  And now that was done he responded to Dumbledore.

_Dear Albus,_

_            Two of my men will be arriving shortly; as you requested I sent only the best.  Charlie and Percy Weasley.  I've only informed them that there is a girl there that needs protecting, you can provide them with the other details you see necessary to inform them of._

_Sincerely _

_Arthur Weasley_

Arthur sent Dumbledore's letter back with the owl that was perched on the bookshelf and sent the other two letters out with Molly to be mailed by owl post immediately.  As he sat back down at his desk Arthur silently hoped he'd made the right decision.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a horribly cold Kyrgyzstan morning when Charlie awoke to find an owl beating rapidly on his tent.  "What in the world could it be now? Antarctica? The Sahara? Are they sending me on missions or is this some sort of torture?" He thought as fumbled his way out of the sleeping bag.  "Give it here." He growled at the owl.  The owl who was offended at Charlie's gruff manner haughtingly stuck out his foot for Charlie to detach the parchment.  

He wiped the sleep out of his brown eyes before he began to read the letter to himself. As Charlie read a slow grin spread over his face.  His next assignment was protecting a witch at Hogwarts; this was going to be a piece of cake.  The school's charms and spells would probably do all the work for him.  He needed a little vacation after all.  Maybe he'd even get a chance to contact the girl he run out on in California.  "Wonder if she'd be surprised to get a letter by owl post?" he chuckled at the thought of a Muggle getting owl post.  Fond memories of Hogwarts drifted through his mind as he packed up his tent and prepared to apperate to Hogsmeade.

_Flashback.._

_"Really the sorting hat is very painful," A younger Charlie told a tiny nervous looking Percy as they were getting on the Hogwarts express.  _

_"Yes definitely the most painful thing I've ever experienced" Bill agreed.  _

_"But you guys will protect me won't you?" Percy asked.  _

_"Of course, it may get bloody but we'll do what we can to save you from the pain." Charlie answered as the two older boys could barely contain their laughter.  Percy didn't notice, he was too busy looking relieved._

_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_

_Somewhere in Ireland.._

     Percy was having breakfast at a little Pub. "The Lucky Broomstick" was the most famous Irish spot for Witches and Wizards, and Percy was busy eaves dropping on the conversation around him.  He'd followed a suspected Death Eater here last night and he was hoping that he'd lead him to "You Know Who" when he left in the morning.  But so far the man hadn't gotten up, and Percy was hoping that reports of this man's poor apperating ability were true.  Otherwise he shelled out perfectly good galleons for a room he didn't really want last night.  And Percy really hated wastefully spending money.       

      He'd decided to give the man ten more minutes when an owl came through the open window (which was open for just that purpose) and landed on his table.  The owl held out his leg just long enough for Percy to detach the letter and then immediately flew away.  "Now there's an owl that's got the post down to a exact science," Percy thought to himself as he unfolded the letter.  "Hmmm… Hogwarts; this could be interesting.  Shouldn't be too hard at all with Dumbledore and all the rest there. It's been over a year since I've been back; it'll be nice to catch up with some of my old teachers." Percy thought.  Percy quickly checked his fine red hair and freckled face in the mirror over the bar as he paid his bill.  Wouldn't want to show up looking bedraggled.  As he took down notes about the mission he was aborting so that someone else could keep an eye on man he'd been following a quick memory flitted through his mind, the night before he went to Hogwarts for the first time.

_Flashback…_

_"Are there really disappearing staircases? Doesn't sound very believable to me." He'd demanded of Charlie.  _

_"Of course there are, now stop asking so many questions and go to bed, you're going to be tired tomorrow if you don't." His brother had exasperatingly answered him. He'd gone into Charlie and Bill's room to get some answers to a few last minute questions he had, he didn't like feeling unprepared and he was scared to death of leaving home the next day.  In the end he'd bugged them so much that he'd ended up spending the whole night with the two of them listening to outrageous stories about Hogwarts._

_~~~~~~~~~~~~_

_      Charlie and Percy arrived in Hogsmeade at almost the exact same time; fortunately they arrived on the opposite sides of the small town.  The both quickly headed towards Hogwarts, knowing by heart the road that would lead to the castle.  Neither was paying much attention to anyone as they walked out of town.  Luck would have that they both arrived at the path to Hogwarts at the same time.  Neither could quite believe their eyes.  _

"What are you doing here?" They said at the same time

"You tell me first?" Again in unison

"Oh Bloody Hell." Charlie swore.  They stood there staring at each other.

"Not that it's any of your business but my newest assignment is at Hogwarts," Percy conceded as he started to head towards Hogwarts again.

"No it's not," Charlie countered as he followed him. "My newest assignment is at Hogwarts."

"You can't go around stealing my assignments," Percy voice started to get louder all the while they were getting closer to the gates.

"Who's stealing whose assignment?" Charlie was yelling now.

"I received a letter an hour ago urging me to arrive immediately at Hogwarts, Dumbledore needs a help protecting a witch. Obviously Father decided too send the better wizard to protect her." Percy haughtingly informed Charlie

"I received the same letter," the steam had gone out of Charlie's voice.

"Well obviously since I'm here you aren't needed." Percy informed him as they arrived at the gates.

"I think you've got that the wrong way around little brother, you're the one who is so clearly not needed." Charlie told him as he rang the bell outside the gate.

"I do think you're both needed, if you can manage to stop arguing long enough." Dumbledore softly spoke.  Neither man had noticed him approach them.  "We are in great need of both of you and I hope you'll be able to see why after I explain the situation to you.  But this is no place to be discussing such matters. Follow me men, into my office where I'll fill you in on the details."  Properly chastised but still sending glaring looks at each other the two redheads followed Dumbledore into the Castle.

~~~~~~~~~~

…. So you see she could be very dangerous or in a great deal of danger.  Charlie and Percy had listened to Dumbledore explain about the extremely powerful wandless witch from America.  "And as much as I hate to leave Hogwarts at this time, I really feel that my personal appearance in Sunnydale is needed."  

"Did you say Sunnydale?" Charlie asked. 

"Yes, I did that's the location of the Hellmouth." 

"I was just there following a lead on Voldemort."

"Well Mr. Weasley looks like you weren't too far off the mark.  Do you know anything about where the lead came from?"

"My father handles all of that."

"Well perhaps we'll have to look into it when I get back."

"Now boys, you know where the hospital wing is, will you go and wait there until you receive further instructions from Professor McGonagall, she'll be in charge while I'm absent."  Dumbledore instructed them.  As both boys left they ran into Professors Snape, Lupin and McGonagall heading to see Dumbledore.

"What do you expect to accomplish while you're in Sunnydale?" Minerva asked him as she entered the room.  

"I plan on alerting the slayer as to the whereabouts of her friend and I'm hoping that I can convince her to come here for a short time at least; these Americans could make powerful allies in the fight against Voldemort and we need all the help we can get." Albus answered.  

"What if they don't come?" Severus asked.  

"Well, then we'll have too see.  But they will come, fighting darkness is what they do, and her friend is here.  Hogwarts is the best chance Miss Rosenberg has of surviving. I have a few instructions for all of you before I leave." Dumbledore informed them.

"Severus, you need to find out why you didn't know what happened last night, but be careful; even if you can't be a spy you're still very important to the fight.  Remus, you need to get in touch with Moody, let him know that we may need him here soon."  Dumbledore instructed.  "And now if you can please excuse us I have several things I need to discuss with Minerva in private."  The two men left the office.

"Minerva, I'm leaving you in charge here but I need you to do a few things.  Keep an eye on the Weasley brothers; they are to answer directly to you.  Try and make sure that Potter and Company don't go looking for trouble and alert me immediately if anything changes with Miss Rosenberg's condition."  With that Dumbledore apperated directly into the Los Angeles National Airport Men's Room.  "Now about finding a cab."


	9. A Very Giles Return

Title: A Broken Beginning Ch 9 

Author: Nicki C.

Email: "It's all been done before"- Barenaked Ladies. I don't own Buffy. Nor do I own the world of Harry Potter. They both belong to Joss and J.K. Guess what else I don't own? . The words to "Landslide". Yup, they're somebody else's too. They belong to Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks. My personal opinion is that they should be the only group to ever sing it. (I just had to get on my soapbox)

Summery: Giles is heading home

Feedback: I used to think that I didn't need it and it wasn't very important, but then I got some and I really liked it, in fact the more feedback I got the more I wanted. I think you get the idea.

Setting: Ok, this is set during the middle of September. Harry and the gang are in their sixth year and in the Buffy verse it's set after a couple of weeks after episode 7.3, after that it's AU. Willow has been home recovering from the loss of blood. A/N This one flitters a little bit into first person I hope it's not too confusing.

Thanks to.

Littleren- Ok I'm definitely going to work on that, thanks for pointing it out. I just have this thing about paragraphs. My horrible eleventh grade English teacher tortured me into doing them her way. Angeleyes- They're going to find out soon, but I'm pretty sure it won't be in the next chapter. Terrina- I'm glad you like it!

Alright here's the thing, there used to be a song in this chapter, it was important and integral part of the song, but since songs aren't allowed on this site, i'd recommend googleing twisting the hellmouth and reading it there. I'll fix this up a little bit to let you know where it goes

_Insert first Stanza of "Lanslide" by Stevie Nicks_

He couldn't believe that he was going back there again. It wasn't that he didn't want to. He wanted to more than anything in the world. But it hurt so much to go back there and to know he couldn't stay; wouldn't stay. When he'd left he'd known it was best for everyone especially for Buffy. But she was the reason that coming home was so hard. It would be so easy to let her depend on him again; to fight all the battles she couldn't. Not the physical battles, but the emotional ones. He knew that his ego was part of it, who wouldn't want to be the one person in the world that the strongest girl in the world depended on. But she had to learn to make it on her own; and she had been learning. She was surviving, he'd left with Willow immediately after "the incident" but even then he could tell that she was starting to put herself back together again. She was finally starting to see what she was capable of. Lately her letters had been happier also; she was so excited about her new job. She was glad that Willow was home, from what they'd written him they were bonding with each other all over again. Why did this have to happen? Why couldn't those children be happy for just a little bit. It wasn't fair they had to work so hard fighting evil. They deserved a little happiness. But if there was one thing he knew it was that life isn't fair. But none of that mattered right now; they had to find Willow, she had to be ok.

_Insert Chorus of "Landslide"_

Giles looked around his apartment, checking and double-checking to make sure he had everything he would need. It was three in the morning, his flight left in little over an hour. He'd gotten the tickets immediately after talking to Buffy. He had also made some phone calls to a few contacts who might have information about what was going on, but hadn't been able to get a hold of anyone; he'd left messages with instructions to call the Summer's number as soon as possible. He hoped that someone out there knew something; because he didn't have the foggiest idea as to what was going on and now more than ever they needed to figure it out. He looked around the apartment one last time, knowing he'd packed in a hurry and once he'd gotten to America he'd realise he'd forget some vital volume or text. As he closed the door behind him he murmured to himself "I'm coming home Sunnydale."

_Insert Bridge of "lanslide"_

As Giles settled himself into his plane seat he wondered if there would ever be a time when he would be able to come back just for a visit. Would it always be life and death calls in the middle of the night? Will there ever be a call asking him to vacation with them? The thing was they'd always call him when the going got too tough and he'd always answer. That was the part of his relationship with them that he both loathed and hated; and ironically in the end it'd was why he'd left Sunnydale in the first place. Deep down the thought of them not calling when things got bad worried him more than them calling. Because as much as he wanted them to be able to handle things on their own; he wanted to be needed. And he'd never been needed by the Scoobies as much as he was needed right now. And that was why he was on a plane in the middle of the night heading to Southern California. He decided that he needed to stop over thinking things so he pulled out a few of the magazines he'd gotten at the airport.

Giles was halfway over the Atlantic when he'd worn out all the reading material he'd bought in the Airport Gift Shop. Albeit Seventeen wasn't his usual reading fair; though there had been an interesting article about facial hair. The pickings had been slim and he'd been in a hurry. He sat the last magazine down and started to think about Willow, no matter how philosophical he may feel at times; she was reason he was going. Where could that girl be? No Demon he knew would steal the girl right out of the Slayer's house. It had to be somebody who was really stupid or really sure of himself or herself (he didn't want to be sexist). From what Buffy had said on the phone this "Bad" was making big waves in the demon community; some sort of massive genocide (or demoncide) to wipe out any sort of competition. But competition for what? Why Willow? As bad as she'd been last spring, the word had to be out by now that she'd gone back to the side of good.

They stopped to refuel in New York and Giles got off of the plane and headed into the airport café. As he was eating his tuna on rye a thought occurred to him. Maybe this "Bad" who was upset that Willow almost succeeded at what they'd failed at; maybe whatever it was afraid that Willow would be real competition if she ever went dark again. That would explain all they'd found out so far explaining the killing of the Demons as competition and Willow's disappearance. But if this "Bad" was killing off the competition then Giles wasn't coming home to help bring Willow back; he was coming home to bury her. As he headed back to the plane he shook off the depressing train of thought muttering, "That can't be an option."

_Insert Second Verse_

The plane arrived in Los Angeles, he was almost home, and despite what had brought him back it felt good to be here. The smog and pollution was almost a welcome scent. Giles collected his luggage and headed out into the parking lot to look for a cab. But it was a busy Saturday morning and there wasn't an empty one to be found; as he was waiting he noticed a rather odd looking older gentleman standing next to him; the man dressed in long blue robes with pink moons on them and seemed to be trying to catch a cab rather unsuccessfully. Giles continued to stare at him until the blue robed man looked over at him and said "Beautiful day isn't it?"

"Why yes it is, but I guess I hadn't really noticed it until now." Giles replied as he looked at the cloudless sky.

"Other matters on your mind?"

The older man asked in what Giles discovered was a very pronounced English accent. Giles didn't know what it was about the man but as he sat there looking at the odd man there was something that made him want to confess the whole thing to him, tell him about Buffy and Willow and how he was scared to be coming home and elated at the same time. But instead he only answered

"Yes, it's been awhile since I've been in LA and I'm anxious to see some friends." As he finished this sentence a cab finally pulled up, Giles offered it to the other man but he refused saying only, "Reunions among old friends are momentous occasions, I can wait for another cab."

Giles got in the cab and told the driver "All the way to Sunnydale sir."

_Insert Chorus_

As the cab pulled up to the house and Giles exited it everything seemed to move in slow motion, Buffy and Dawn running out of the house when the car pulled up. There were hugs and smiles but there was an underlying sadness and grief in all their greetings. It was a bittersweet homecoming.


	10. Painful Reminders

A/N** Because it's been so long I'm posting this before I get it back from my beta-reader, who by the way is the best beta-reader in the world.  Anyway as soon as I get my edited copy back from her I'm going to post it over this.

Title: A Broken Beginning Ch 10

Author: Nicki C. 

Email: Nimacu@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: "It's all been done before"- Barenaked Ladies.  I don't own Buffy.   Nor do I own the world of Harry Potter.  They both belong to Joss and J.K. 

Summery: Something happens that causes the Scoobies to head to England.

Feedback: I used to think that I didn't need it and it wasn't very important, but then I got some and I really liked it, in fact the more feedback I got the more I wanted. I think you get the idea.

Setting: Later the same day

A/N* It's been awhile, I had a lot of family stuff going on and my mind was a far from Harry and Buffy as could be.

Thanks to…

**Wild -** I'm glad you liked both chapters; I wondered what happened to you.

**angeleyes –** I hope you like this chapter too.

Steph- I can't wait either, part of the reason this chapter was so hard to write is because I didn't feel as passionately about it as I do about some of the ones I already have the outlines written for. 

**Jeanne-** Your review really kicked my butt in gear to get this written.  My eternal thanks.

Terrina- Sorry it took so long, hope you're still reading it.  And this isn't quite what you were waiting for but you might like this chapter especially. 

Severus Snape looked around the infirmary and thought about how crowded the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts School of Witch Craft and Wizardry was for a Sunday Afternoon.  There were two redheaded men pacing back and forth around a bed on which a redheaded woman slept, and occasionally they would throw furious glares at each other.  He really wondered what good Dumbledore thought those two bumbling gits would do when they wouldn't even talk to each other. But he was sure that Dumbledore probably thought some lesson could be learned from working together and if there's a lesson to be learned then woe be anyone who tries to interfere. 

Severus took another look at the girl on the bed; there was something about her that kept drawing his gaze.  He wasn't even sure what it was, she wasn't stunningly pretty; but still he couldn't help but look at her.  It was all such a mystery, sure they knew who and what she was, but why was she here?  Why hadn't he known about her ahead of time?  Had he been caught?  Were they planning his demise at this moment?  He needed to find out, but he couldn't bring himself to leave the hospital wing.  But Dumbledore had ordered him too… Severus stood up from the chair and turned to the older of the two Wesley's; "Charlie, I have some things I have to take care of; I might be gone for awhile.  If I haven't returned by this evening contact Dumbledore and your father immediately.   And with that he walked out of the room.

………………………………

            Willow looked around the empty room she was sitting in, she felt like she'd been there forever.  It was such a lonely place, such an empty place.  "I'm cold and I'm hungry, and I want to go home," she said out loud to herself.  But the sound of her voice startled her.  It seemed so strange to hear anything at all.  She felt so sad sitting there alone; she felt like she'd never laugh again, never smile.   She wasn't sure where she was or even how she got there.   The last thing she remembered was that man in her room, and his laugh.  Then she'd woken up here, or at least she thought she was awake.  She couldn't really be sure.  There was a "sense" about the place, like it wasn't real, couldn't be real.  She kept hoping it was a dream she wake up from, because in this room she was so alone, she couldn't feel the magic she usually felt.  The magic that she'd learn flowed through everything.  She'd just been learning to embrace that, and now she was cut off from it.  With that thought Willow curled on the floor and sobbed.

…………………..

            "Have you ever met a wandless witch before Ron?" Harry asked intently as the two boys sat in their room discussing the mysterious Miss Rosenberg.  "No but I've heard of them, Dad says that they are few and far between.  Because most Witches and Wizards learn from a young age with wands so no one ever gets to see if they'd been strong enough to learn without one.  Dad says that sometimes very old wizarding families will refuse to teach their children with a wand in hopes that they will develop wandless abilities, but most of the time it fails." Ron informed them.  "I guess there'd have to be a whole lot of magic in a person to be a good wandless witch or wizard." Harry commented.  "But then how would a muggle born get to be one?" Ron wondered out loud.  Harry looked at Ron intently for a moment and then spoke "I'm not sure, maybe she wasn't Muggle born, or maybe there's special circumstances or maybe its just fate."  The two boys looked at each other both thinking the same thing.  Ron started to say, "Let's get Hermione" and Harry finished it with "There's research to be done."  The two headed toward the common room.

            When they came down the stairs Dean Thomas was the only person sitting in the Common room.   "Have you seen Hermione?" Harry asked him.   Dean chuckled for a moment, and then spoke.  "She was in here doing homework or something then Seamus came in and talked to her and she took off like lightning.  Seamus seemed pretty unhappy with her and when she left she was the brightest shade of red I've ever seen. Do you think they had a lover's spat?"  Ron and Harry exchanged a confused look and they both answered firmly answered "No" at the same time.  "Do you know where she went?" Ron asked.  Dean thought for a few seconds then answered "Well she left the tower and she had a load of books with her, so I assume she was going to the library; but I don't know for sure. Maybe you two should keep better track of her". With the last comment Dean who was amazed at his own cleverness winked at the boys and headed up to their room.  "To the library Watson!" Harry turned to Ron with dramatic bravado as he left the room.  Ron just followed shaking in head in confusion at the reference.

Harry and Ron arrived in the library to find Hermione sitting in front of a stack of books reading. "Whatcha doing 'Mione?"  Ron asked her as the two boys sat down next to her.  "I'm trying to find some information on wandless witches and wizards, there's lots of little bits of information but nothing really solid.  I want to find out everything that I can about the Willow Rosenberg and her type of magic." Hermione paused before she continued, "I also want to find out more about the slayer and the Hellmouth, and I have a general idea of what they are but I want details."  "I would have waited to come to the library until after I'd talked to both of you but certain insufferable people were bothering my reading in the Common Room." Hermione finished with a determined look on her face.

"Well we came down here to see if you wanted to help us do some wandless witch research.  Ron was telling me all he knew about them and we decided we needed to know more." Harry told her.  Hermione turned to Ron "Well what do you know about wandless witches?"  Ron recapped what he told Harry earlier while Hermione listened intently.  The boys could see a plan formulating itself in her head.  After Ron had finished Hermione decided to share what she'd been thinking about.  "Ron, Harry I think we should break down the research into three parts, each of us looking into a different part and finding all we can about it.  As far as I can tell there's four things we need to research; One: Wandless Witches, Two: Hellmouths in General and the Hellmouth on Sunnydale specifically, Three: The Slayer, specifically "the girl who died twice", Four: the last name Rosenberg, we need to find out if she comes from an old wizarding family.  I think it would be a good idea if you took the Wandless Witches research Ron."  Hermione waited for Ron's agreement.  He thought on it a moment and nodded his head in ascension.  Hermione turned to Harry "I think you should look up the last name Rosenberg, find anything you can that would relate that girl to the wizarding world. And I'll look up the Slayer and the Hellmouth.  Does that sound agreeable to everyone?" Hermione looked at both of the boys. They both nodded in agreement and the three teens headed away from the table to look through the shelves of books to find the information they so desperately wanted.   As Hermione looked through the books she mumbled to herself "We didn't do nearly enough research last year."

…………………………

                        Remus Lupin sat in Minerva McGonagall's office looking at the older women with a curious eye.  "What are we supposed to do now? Just sit here and wait?" He asked her impatiently.  Minerva gathered her patience and pursed her lips together for a few moments reminding herself that the young woman's presence had made them all restless before answering the younger man. "Yes that's exactly what we are supposed to do, sit here and wait, and watch and protect.  And most importantly to teach the children, to teach them like everything is normal. To make sure that things stay normal for them.  I know that sometimes the most difficult job is to stay behind pretending everything is ok, that we're not worried.  But often it is the most important job of all.   She hadn't wanted to do it, but Minerva's advice painfully reminded Remus of Sirius.  A chastised Remus nodded gently at this advice and left the elder teacher to herself.

…………………………..

                        At that very moment when Remus and Minerva were in the office discussing the girl, the two red-headed men guarding Willow noticed something different about the girl.  Tears were cascading down her cheeks.  Both men stood staring dumbfounded for a moment before Percy gathered his wits and called loudly for Madam Pomfrey.


	11. Somebody's Home

Title: A Broken Beginning Ch 11

Author: Nicki C. 

Email: Nimacu@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: "It's all been done before"- Barenaked Ladies.  I don't own Buffy.   Nor do I own the world of Harry Potter.  They both belong to Joss and J.K. 

Summery: Something happens that causes the Scoobies to head to England.

Feedback: I used to think that I didn't need it and it wasn't very important, but then I got some and I really liked it, in fact the more feedback I got the more I wanted. I think you get the idea.

Thank You 

**AlienBeing- **As always you're a wonderful Beta-reader

**Jeanne-** Glad you like it.

**Wild-** Thank you and finally here's more.

**Angeleyes-** I'll try and keep it up.

**Mystic Queen-** Researcher's Rock

**Steph-**It might be awhile before they get together, but I'm setting up for it big time.

**Slyslayer13-** I am dedicated, and I constantly kick myself over plot holes. *Blushes* I've never been called brilliant before.

**Dark Comet-** Thank you

**Athene Saile-** I'm trying

**Ally**- This is a little longer than some of the others.  They probably could be really long I just get so excited when I write that I want to post write away.  

**AND MY BIGGEST THANK YOU TO JENNIFER S**. who put me on her favorite author's list.  I was so honored I almost cried (seriously).

Severus surveyed his surroundings, looking at the other wizards and witches who occupied the dank pub, it was dark and gloomy and so were the people in it.  Usually it was his favorite place to be but today as he sat there with a pint of Butterbeer in front of him his stomach was in knots.  He knew that very possibly these could be his last moments on earth.  The girl at Hogwarts had been a surprise and he hated surprises, especially when his not knowing could very well mean his death was imminent.  But he had no choice but to wait and see.  

The Black Candle was without a doubt the place to be for anyone involved in the dark arts, he owled Lucius Malfoy and was waiting for him to arrive.  Lucius who was at this moment one of the escaped prisoners from the "happier, friendlier" Azkaban.  In other words, he'd spent a couple of weeks in the dementor-less prison before he'd escaped with the three others he'd been arrested with. Lucius was probably the closest thing Severus had to a friend in Voldemort's army, they'd grown up together and he knew that Lucius was the safest person to get the answers from that he so desperately needed.  

Just as Severus was starting to worry Lucius wouldn't show, the blond wizard walked in the door.  Severus smirked to himself as he watched him, any other man who was on the run from the entire magical community would disguise himself or at least keep a low profile, but not Luc, nope.  He arrived with as much flare as ever, almost daring somebody to try and stop him.   

Lucius pushed his trademark Malfoy blonde hair out of his face as he spotted Severus and sat down at the table with him.  Lucius motioned for the waitress to bring him a Butterbeer and turned to his companion.

"What was so bloody important that we had to meet right now Severus?"  Lucius asked.

"We had a visitor last night at Hogwarts, would you know anything about that?"

"DAMN, you do know I'm supposed to be a fugitive don't you?  You called me all the way here to ask me if I know anything about a visitor at Hogwarts?"

"God, this can't be good," Severus gave a defeated sigh and put his head on the table.

"Well what is it? What's so special about this visitor? Why did you need to discuss it with me?"

Severus seemed to debate a moment, staring at the impatient man next to him before speaking.  

"Well, around eleven thirty or so Minerva McGonagall was doing a check of the grounds and she found something she wasn't expecting" Severus paused, trying to drag the story out.  Some things never got old, and irritating Lucius was one of those things.

"Would you continue, you fool, what did she find?"

"The Dark Mark above the Gates.  And of course she went and got Dumbledore. And the minute he heard that old fool ran out there by himself to see what had happened." He'd added the last part because of course he was supposed to hate Dumbledore. 

"Never was one to wait for reinforcements was he? Too sure of himself; that'll be his downfall in the end…Now if..." Lucius stopped, as he seemed to realize that he was starting to rant.  "Enough of that for now I suppose, what did he find by the Gate?"

"A unconscious girl, an American Witch to be exact."  Severus decided that Lucius didn't need to know what was so special about the girl.  He was the enemy after all.

Lucius looked at the table and his face formed into a frown as he processed that information.  Then looking up at Severus with a hint of panic.  (Only a hint of course since Malfoy's don't panic).  Slowly Lucius spoke.  "I had no idea what happened, and that can't be good."  

Severus gave an exasperated sigh "That's precisely my point."

~.~.~.~.~.

In a dark room somewhere in Canada. 

A short, pale balding man stood next to a cloaked figure, the man fidgeted nervously listening the other talk. "It's all working perfectly Wormtail, my plans are finally coming together.  With nothing but the boy wonder to stop me, I'll be the greatest and only evil in the world."  

The man he'd referred to as Wormtail seemed to be debating whether or not to speak.  "Yes, my Dark Lord."  He stopped for a moment and even though he thought better of it spoke again "But why Lord have you excluded Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy?" 

The cloaked figure lashed out and hit the little man. "That's for me to know and you to not worry about, just know if you see them you're to kill on contact."

"Ye..Ye..Yes my Lord."  The man answered crying from the pain of the blow.

~.~.~.~.~.~

"She's crying, Merlin.  She's crying!"  Charlie shouted to the medi-witch.  

"I've noticed that, young man.  Would you please give me a moment of silence to work with here?"  Pomfrey spoke in her no nonsense tone.

"Of course, sorry.  Just got a little excited." Charlie looked properly contrite.

Percy looked over at his brother with smug superiority.  A look that clearly said, "a mature wizard would never behave like that." But in all honesty Percy was as excited as his brother.  If the witch was crying, then somewhere deep inside she must be ok.  This was the best news they'd gotten so far.  If the girl woke up she might know something that would lead them to Voldemort.  Percy's thoughts continued to cycle in much the same manner until he noticed the older witch was standing straight up again and looked as though she was about to speak.

"Well boys, although it's a good sign that mentally there's something left of her.  I dare say physically her condition hasn't changed at all."  She grimaced as if saying it made it more so.

"Well at least it's something."  Charlie remarked.

"Yes, I daresay it's an improvement," Percy agreed.

"Yes, boys of course your right, I'm just a little disappointed that nothing I've tried has worked so far.  Now could one of you run and give Professor McGonagall the update."  As Pomfrey turned to head to her office she added  "And make sure she knows there's no reason to rush here."

"I'll go." Charlie told Percy.

"All right, I suppose.  I'll stay here and keep watch." Percy refrained from looking at Charlie as he spoke.

Charlie left the Hospital Wing and Headed toward McGonagall's office.  He could remember heading there as a teenager when he got in trouble.  Although now the feelings of trepidation and worry had nothing to do with dung bombs in the Potions room and everything to do with red-headed witches and evil Lords.  As he walked there he thought back to the last time he'd been in her office.

***"I'm incredibly disappointed in you Mr. Weasley.  As captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team your supposed to set an example for the student body.  I'll have you know Snape wants you removed from the team altogether.  But as always my soft spot for you won and you'll be doing detention with me until Easter." ***

Charlie couldn't ever remember a time where he'd been in trouble at Hogwarts that Professor McGonagall hadn't stood up for him.  When he'd been younger she'd been his hero, and then when he'd gotten older for a short time he'd developed a crush on the older witch (although for all the galleon's in the world he wouldn't admit it to anyone).  Although he still didn't know why she favored him, he'd found a kindred soul in the witch and she'd been a mentor to him as well.  He'd like to think that it was the same kind of relationship that Harry, Ron, and Hermione had with Dumbledore. It'd eased his mind to know that the three of them had a champion at Hogwarts as well.

By this time he'd reached the door to her office, he knocked quickly and then walked in without waiting for an answer.  

"Well hello, Mr. Weasley I see you manners haven't changed any" Her tone was strict, but her eyes were kind as she reprimanded him.

"Yeah, can't do too much about that.  It was that awful education I had.  You should have met some of the teachers.  Unbelievable." He joked with her. His voice and face both took a serious tone as he spoke. "But seriously I have an update about the girl."

"Well, what is it?"

"She was crying." McGonagall started to interrupt him but he put up a hand to quiet her.  "Don't get too excited though, Madame Pomfrey says that her physical condition is the same."  He sounded dejected as he spoke the last part.

There was a small smile on McGonagall's face as she spoke "Yes, but don't you understand what this means?" 

"Yeah, all the lights may be out but somebody's home."

~.~.~.~.~.~.

"What are you grinning about Harry?" Ron looked at him quizzically over the pile of books between them in the back of the library.  The grin quickly disappeared from Harry's face as he swore 

"Oh bloody hell!" He continued after a moment  "Nothing nothing at all. Voldemort must be the happy one."  Ron seemed to accept this and continued reading.  But Harry wasn't done ranting.  "I'm so sick of this! I feel like I've got this other person I share my emotions with and I can't do anything about it…" Harry was going to continue ranting but Hermione started shushing him and pointed to the front of the library where Madame Pince sat.  All three teens settled back into their reading with Hermione occasionally jotting down a random note.  

Suddenly Harry lifted his head up and exclaimed loudly.  "By Merlin, you two are never going to believe this!"


	12. It's What We Do

Title: A Broken Beginning Ch 12

Author: Nicki C. 

Email: Nimacu@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: "It's all been done before"- Barenaked Ladies.  I don't own Buffy.   Nor do I own the world of Harry Potter.  They both belong to Joss and J.K.  Oh! but the cab driver's all mine!

Summery: Something happens that causes the Scoobies to head to England.

Feedback: I used to think that I didn't need it and it wasn't very important, but then I got some and I really liked it, in fact the more feedback I got the more I wanted. I think you get the idea.

Thank Yous

**Alienbeing-** I've said it once and I'll say it again.  You Rock! Thank you.

**Skiwisej-** Thanks, I'm glad you like it.  Here's the first of the introductions.

**Adb-** Ohh I've got another new reader.  Thank you

**Joyclene-** First of all I'm incredibly honored to be on your favorite author's list. I really liked your review, I thought about printing it out and hanging it.  But my brother thought that maybe that was a bit much.  I looked at your author page and you don't have any of your fics listed.  Is there somewhere where I can read them?  I always like to check out the stories of the people who review me.

**Steph-** I promise it'll be worth the wait

**Hecatonchires-** I thought Canada was an excellent place to hide.  Who would look for the "Dark Lord" in Saskatchewan or Quebec?

**WhiteWolf 3-** No, that's not it.  But nice catch there knowing Harry was looking up her name.  

**Ladyicondraco-** thank you, and I hope your computer's feeling better.

**Dark Comet-** For some reason I'm a Lucius fan, sad as that is.  Probably the same reason I'm a Legolas fan.  The hair, I love the hair.

         Buffy, Giles, Xander and Dawn sat in the living room of their home on Revello Drive.  Once they'd gotten Giles' things settled into the house, a pregnant silence had permiated the group.  For a few minutes they each pretended to be doing something or interested in something, but eventually all activity had stopped as the dread again overtook them.  Each afraid to talk about it.  Afraid to make it seem more real; afraid that if they spoke the words they'd be etched in stone.  

Giles sighed and then spoke "Well, I suppose we should go over the clues we have."

Buffy started to answer him "Alright so far…" But she was stopped by a knock on the door.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Dumbledore unfolded his lean body from the cab, looking at the two-story home. It seemed so normal, like something out of a muggle picture book.  The whole street was lined with houses that looked ordinary.  If one didn't know better it'd be hard to convince them that this place was a Hellmouth.  For a moment the elderly wizard stopped, thought about what he was about to do.  Yes, he'd bring relief and good news about the witch.  But anyone could do that, and his visit held much more purpose.  He was about to go in there and upset their whole world, tell them things that they'd never known to be true and ask them to fight a fight that for all intents and purposes wasn't theirs.  Yes, in the bigger picture the slayer was designed to fight evil, but long ago the line had been drawn between the muggle world and the wizarding world.  And the Vampire Slayer was the Muggle's champion. Now he was going to go into this ordinary little house and cross boundaries that been in place for thousands of years, and he wasn't a fool, he knew there were reasons, very good reasons that the two worlds were separate.  But he was afraid, afraid for Harry, afraid for the School, and ashamedly afraid for himself.  Not only was he afraid, but a little desperate too.  He was at the end of his knowledge, he could remember being younger and pompously thinking that there was no end.  But now there was more at stake, keeping Harry safe was the most important thing and he couldn't do it by himself anymore, he'd more than proved that watching Sirius die. So here he was, the Champion of the Wizarding world, here to beg and if need be bargain with the Muggle Champion in order to save his world. 

"You know here in America, we pay cab drivers!" The little man who sat behind the driver's seat of the cab that Dumbledore had gotten out of yelled at him.   This outburst shook Dumbledore out of his thoughts.  He pulled out what he thought would be a sufficient amount of American money out of his robes and handed the wad to the driver.  The Cab Driver smiled greedily at the twenties in his hand and sped away without another word.  And at that Dumbledore walked onto the front porch and knocked on the door.

Buffy looked through the peephole (it was Sunnydale after all) before answering the door to a rather strangely dressed gray-haired man.  Drawing upon reserves she didn't know she had; she smiled at the man before speaking. "I'm sorry sir, I'm sure whatever you're selling is brilliant but now just isn't the time for it."  She turned to shut the door but before she could the man stepped inside, holding the door open in the process. 

"Miss Summers if you would please allow me to introduce myself, Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."  Buffy watched the man force himself into her home and normally that kind of action would put her on guard, but for some reason he didn't register with as the dangerous type.  And at the same moment Buffy was realizing this; Giles was remembering the incident outside of the airport with the man who had now firmly planted himself in the entryway.  

Buffy again smiled gently at the man, and spoke "I'm sorry sir, we really don't have anyone who'd be interesting in joining a correspondence course right now.  Why don't you come back in a few weeks?"  He'd known her name and for some reason she had used her best manners speaking to this man.  She decided she analyze both of those facts later when she had time.  And perhaps Willow had been interested in this school, but thoughts of Willow brought back to the fact that this stranger in her home was hindering whatever it was that they were supposed to be doing to save her.  That thought was interrupted however as the Mr. Dumbledore spoke again.  

"Miss Summers, please allow me to explain myself."  Seeing that she wasn't going to get the man out of her house short of physically removing him (and she didn't really want to do that) she decided to listen to what he had to say.

The man reached into the case that he was carrying and pulled out a jacket, handing it to Buffy he asked her if she recognized it.  But before Buffy could look at it too closely Xander grabbed it out his hands and moved menacingly toward the old man.  

"That's Willow's jacket, where the hell did you get it?"  The usually non-violent Xander penned Dumbledore against the wall.  And just as suddenly as it all happened Xander was thrown away from him.  At this movement Buffy pulled a stake out of her pocket, Dawn unclothed a dagger, Giles picked up a pix-axe from the coffee table and Xander grabbed a sword that had been lying propped up against the fireplace. All four stood in fighting stance staring at the strange man.

Dumbledore couldn't believe it, one minute he was removing the overzealous young man from his robes and the next there were four heavily armed people staring him down.  They'd moved so quickly towards the weapons, fluidity in all of their movements; not just the slayers.  He'd have to hand it to them; they were just as amazing as all the stories had claimed.  He couldn't help but smile in awe before speaking.

"I got the jacket from Miss Rosenberg, she was wearing it when I found her."  

 They started to speak, bombarding him with questions in quick order, almost like it'd been rehearsed.  That was how well they knew each other

"You found her?" Buffy asked not moving an inch and feeling betrayed by the man she had instinctively trusted upon his arrival at the door.  

"What does that mean? Is she safe?"  Dawn asked

"Where is she at?" Xander demanded in voice that was altogether rougher than normal.

And then before any of the questions could be answered Giles asked the one question the others were afraid to.  "Is she alive?"

Dumbledore couldn't help but brood before answering.  If any of the member's of the Order of the Phoenix worked as well together as these four, he wouldn't have to be here.  "Yes, she's alive.  Barely, but alive. And she safer, probably safer than she's ever been before. However before interrupting me again could you please give a chance to explain who I am?"

He paused as he stared at each of them.

"As I said before my name is Albus Dumbledore and I am Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, I'm also a member ofthe International Confederation of Wizards and the recently re-instated Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot."

"Wizenwhat?" Dawn blurted out before Buffy could shush her.

Dumbledore continued ignoring the interruption "Now that you know who I am, I'll try to explain to you as best I can why I'm here.  You see a very powerful wizard hurt Miss Rosenberg very badly; and somebody left her outside of our gates, for whatever reason I'm not sure.  It doesn't do to guess to soon the motivation of your enemies."  

He was going to wait a moment before going into any more detail but Xander spoke "Well, we know why he did it."  

Giles gave the younger man a reprimanding look that clearly said, "Shut your trap."  But before Giles could actually say the words Dumbledore started speaking again.  

"I know what you are Miss Summers, and what you three are to her.  I've heard stories of your group of friends.  It's something of a legend where I come from.  The slayer who-died-twice, the white knight, the watcher, the key, and the redheaded witch.  Not to mention the others who make appearances in the tales told about you, a werewolf, a souled vampire, a neutered vampire, and an ex-demon."

"People tell stories about us?" Buffy asked with almost a look of pride on her face.

"Well not stories exactly.  It's more like reports, it's important for the people in the Wizarding world to know what's going on outside of it.  And you make for an amazing story over a glass of cognac.  And I'm sure I've only heard the stories of your biggest battles."  Dumbledore explained.

Buffy looked at him for a moment listening to the information he'd given her, mulling it over in her head and fighting with the conflicting emotions she felt.  Elation at knowing Willow was alive, worry about how alive she was, and a slight irritation with the explanation the older wizard had just given.

"If you've heard of us, why in all of our research have we never heard of you?"

"Because your not supposed to.  We have a whole legion of wizards and witches who make it their life's work to keep Muggles from finding out about us…" He was going to continue speaking but he was interrupted yet again.

This interruption was courtesy of Xander who had been paying close attention to the words of the robed gentleman "Who are Muggles?" 

"Muggles would be any non-magical person, i.e. you.  And as I was saying you're not supposed to.  The Wizarding world is kept in great secret for both our protection and your own good."

"But yet you people have been watching us the whole time" And this was the part that was really getting to Buffy.  "And you never did anything, you knew that the world almost ended several times and you never tried to help?  All those times that it was almost the end and we would have done anything for a little extra help, all those times I died.  Your world knew?"  She thought about continuing to rant, but for once decided to shut her mouth, this man had Willow and she was the bottom line, she'd fight with him after Willow was safe, well at least that's what she thought until Dumbledore spoke again, replying to her tirade.

"Well I can't give you an excuse, but I can try and explain our reasons.  A large part of it is that most Wizards and Witches see anything having to do with Demons as being a "muggle problem".  Therefore not for them to worry about. And as I said before it's not an excuse, but it is a fact.  And we've been busy with a lot of problems of our own.  A Hellmouth is the least of our worries, especially when we know a capable slayer and her friends are there.  We could go back and forth with this until next week, but in the end it comes down to this.  You fought the evil, and lived to tell about it. Everything else is just details.  And details can be discussed later."  Dumbledore almost fumbled for the words to make everything right, he'd never felt more inadequate at explaining something in his life. And he knew it was because there was no way to explain it easily.  There just weren't excuses for some actions and all the talking in the world couldn't make it better.  

Buffy listened to the man try and explain it, and as much as she wanted to sit and discuss this and rage against the bitterness that was already consuming her, some of what he said did make since but it still left a lot of things unanswered for.  But now wasn't the time for answers; now was the time for action.  

"So if you know who's doing this tell us. So we can go and kick some major ass." Buffy demanded of the man.

"I'm afraid it isn't that simple Miss Summer's, if a simple..." Dumbledore cleared his throat, "ass kicking was all he needed it would have been done along time ago."

"Well along time ago you didn't have a slayer, now you do." Buffy was getting impatient with the man, he never seemed to give complete answers and the need for revenge was flowing through her.  "Now if you'll just let us bring Willow back, tell us where this big bad is and who he is you can be on your way.  We've faced worse before without your kind's help and we'll do it again."

At the end of these instructions Dumbledore spoke again, but this time his voice wasn't calm or collected.  And as though gathering himself up he appeared taller and more imposing than he had before "Miss Summers you have a very small view of what you refer to as my kind, a view that can't be more than ten minutes old, so don't assume things that may not be true, because I assure that Voldemort is above and beyond anything you've ever faced before."  As he spoke the room seemed to get darker, and Buffy could swear she felt a chilling breeze blow against her face.  

As Dumbledore finished things in the room seemed to fall back to normal and it seemed once again that they were only talking to an elderly gentleman.  And at this Dawn seemed to finally collect her wits and spoke.  "Well, what now?"

"Although it may seem contrite after everything we've just discussed and I understand if you refuse, I came here for more than one reason…."  Dumbledore was going to continue but yet again the slayer interrupted him.

"You came here for help." 

"Well, Yes.  You see…" again an interruption

"No explanation's right now, I don't care.  Take us to Willow, then we'll help.  It's what we do."


	13. What Pureblooded Families Don't Want You...

Title: A Broken Beginning Ch 13 (What Pureblooded families don't want you to know)

Author: Nicki C. 

Email: Nimacu@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: "It's all been done before"- Barenaked Ladies.  I don't own Buffy.   Nor do I own the world of Harry Potter.  They both belong to Joss and J.K

Summery: Something happens that causes the Scoobies to head to England.

Feedback: I used to think that I didn't need it and it wasn't very important, but then I got some and I really liked it, in fact the more feedback I got the more I wanted. I think you get the idea.

A/N***Ok, writing the book excerpt was hard because I wanted it to sound like Rita Skeeter.

Thank You

**Adb- **yes, I guess they do.  But at least the watchers are good when it comes to helping with research.

Skywisej- Thank you. Dark Comet- No one's ever bitch-slapped my characters before.  But I'm going to take it as a compliment. 

**Brandy-** Your compliments honor me.

**Poet-** yes it is, but it's also totally in character for Buffy.

**Jeanne-** I agree Buffy needs a decent boyfriend, note that I said decent and not normal.

            After declaring that he'd found something that they were never going to believe Harry stared at Ron and Hermione, waiting for them to beg him for the information he'd found.  "Well, what is it Harry?  We haven't got all day," Hermione said in a voice that meant business.   But Harry was still grinning, and started to think out loud "Oh this is just too good to be true, I can't wait until I see him. But I guess I can't really say anything, but maybe…"  Harry was going to continue rambling to himself forgetting about informing them until Ron spoke "Bloody Hell Harry, just tell us", Harry attention was brought back to them then, and he was going to speak until Hermione started chastising Ron about his language "Do you constantly have to use such Gutter language?"  Seeming to forget the matter at hand she started ranting, "Adolescent boys seem to think that they have an inane right to use…"  Hermione trailed off as Harry interrupted her.  

           "Ok, listen to this paragraph from "What Pureblooded Families Don't Want You to Know" By Rita Skeeter" But before he could speak Hermione interrupted him again.  "What are you doing reading trash like that?  This is supposed to be research"

"Would you just listen to me for a moment, and by the way I figured that since she found out all sorts of things she wasn't supposed to know about us, she's probably done it to other people too.  Ok so this is under the chapter for squibs born to purebloods

Even the most notoriously pureblooded family in all of England has a squib or two hiding in the branches of their family trees.  Yes you know what family I'm talking about, the Malfoy family.  The family who's famous for their distaste of Muggles and half-breeds has a few squib born secrets of their own.  Their sordid tale start not more than seventy years ago when a squib child born to Octavious and Margaret Malfoy (Grandparents of Lucius Malfoy, benefactor extrodionare in the wizarding world).  Octavious and Margaret announced to the world that their darling daughter Olivia Malfoy  had died in an accident mere weeks before school was scheduled to start at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  Afraid that once school started and their daughter was not there that their secret would be revealed to the world. The daughter was then hidden away from the wizarding world and raised behind closed doors, never meeting people outside of the family mansion. She was kept like the dirty secret that the world could never know.  And as the couple announced the birth of their son (and only other child) Clive Malfoy; people forgot about the rumors of a girl's cry coming from a room that didn't seem to be there in the Malfoy's mansion.  And it wouldn't be spoken of again until almost 6 years later when the Malfoy family was again in upheaval, searching all over England for a blond-haired muggle who bore a striking resemblance to their dead daughter.  Never giving details only looking.  A servant of the family who wishes to remain anonymous gave this statement "Mistress Olivia ran away, she may not have had any magic.  But she was a smart girl."  Several other statements of the like were given to this author when questioning old friends and servants of Octavious and Margaret.  The general consensus being that Olivia who was at the time seventeen, decided that she'd had enough with being…."  Harry's long reading was interrupted by Ron.

"What does any of that have to do with Willow Rosenberg?"  Ron exasperatingly exclaimed. 

"Well if you'd let me finish you'd get it" Harry bit back before Hermione spoke

"Ron be patient, I think I can see where Harry's going with this," She paused for a moment and spoke again  "But Harry this is a bit long winded even for me.  Do you think you can summarize it for us?"

            Harry glanced down at the page, skimming the next few paragraphs then he spoke "Well Rita goes on to talk about hunting down Olivia, and how through her mastery detective skills she found the girl and her family in America.  Olivia had settled in southern California and married Herman Rosenberg, a Jewish Doctor."  Harry stopped and stared at the other too waiting for a reaction both seemed at a loss for words.  

       Finally Hermione spoke in a quiet voice "Well I suppose that explains why she's so powerful". Ron who had been speechless a moment before answered "I guess it does".

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

            Percy was sitting on the chair next to the un-conscious American, contemplating and wondering about the woman.  She looked so tiny and frail he thought.  Not at all like the powerful witch that Dumbledore described, it wasn't that he didn't think it was possible and he was smart enough to realize that you can't judge a book by it's cover, he just couldn't believe that this slip of girl had almost ended the world.  His mind was a whirlwind of different thoughts.  One minute he wondered if his presence here was really necessary, because as much as he was loath to admit it, Charlie could handle this by himself.  Babysitting an un-conscious girl wouldn't be too hard even for him.  And at the same time he'd think "If Dumbledore wanted us here I'm sure he has good reasons, he's not one for overreacting, and if what he did say was true than even Charlie and I might not be enough to stop the girl if she was angry when she woke up."    As Percy finished with that last thought and had haphazardly come to a conclusion in his mind that he wasn't wasting his time guarding the girl Charlie entered the room with Professor McGonagall.

Percy saw the older witch with Charlie and couldn't help but make a childish remark "Madame Pomfrey told you that you didn't have to bring her back" 

"I know that, but she wanted to come anyway."  Charlie bit back at him 

"Before you two start bickering move aside so I can get a better look at the girl."  McGonagall told the two men and then went over to examine the woman on the bed who was still crying.  She secretly hoped that maybe she'd see something, or realize something that others had missed.  Something that would give them a clue as to how to help the girl.  After a few minutes she stood quietly and set down in a chair close to the bed folding her head into her hands. 

 Seeing such a helpless gesture in a woman they both greatly admired and who always seemed well put together scared the men, and Charlie spoke hoping to relieve the fear "Professor, do you have any idea what's going on with her?"  McGonagall looked up at him "No Charlie, I've never seen anything like it."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

            Severus arrived back into his chambers through the fireplace with a firm scowl on his already grim features.  He didn't have any more answers now than when he'd left, the trip's only enlightening information being that Lucius didn't have a clue as to what was going on either.  They'd parted with Lucius promising to see if he could find out what was going on and get a message to him if he found out anything.  He changed out of his traveling robes and into his work robes and headed back up to the place he hadn't stopped thinking about since he'd left it.  The bedside of the redheaded witch.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"Should we pack?"  Buffy asked Dumbledore 

"No, I can send someone back for your things, going to need to travel lightly considering none of you have ever used a Portkey before, or anything of the sort. "  He answered her

"A Portkey? What's a Portkey?"  Xander asked

"Does it hurt?" Dawn quickly followed before Dumbledore had time to answer.

"It's how we're getting to Hogwarts and no it doesn't hurt."  Dumbledore answered the pair, but his gaze was drawn to the older man who had sat down on the couch still holding the pix-axe that he picked up earlier.  Staring at it, obviously deep in thought.  Wondering why he was being so quiet when the others weren't he decided to ask.

"Is something troubling you Mr…?"  Dumbledore stopped in mid-sentence and then continued "I'm sorry I didn't catch your name."

            Giles looked up at the older man standing above him, contemplating a response and then spoke "It's Rupert Giles, although most just call me Giles.  And something's nagging in the back of mind, somehow your story seems familiar.  Like I should know what your talking about, but I don't.   I can't really describe the feeling but it's there."  This time, which was much like the moment in the airport parking lot, the overwhelming comfort that Giles felt in the man's presence caused him to confide more than he would normally to a stranger.

Dumbledore was about to reply to Giles when the slayer and her two counterparts came back into the room.  All three were wearing some sort of weaponry or another on their body.  

"We're ready to go" Buffy told the Wizard.

"I thought I told you that we'd send for your things?" Dumbledore asked, raising an eyebrow and pointing at Xander who was wearing more weapons than clothing.

"We're not going with someone we just met, someone who obviously has Willow to a place none of us have ever been before without some way of protecting ourselves.  We're not stupid and we're not gullible."  She stopped almost daring the man to contradict her and then continued, "I won't lead my friends to death…" Buffy paused for a moment and then added "again".

"All right, have it your way Miss Summers" Dumbledore just didn't feel the need to argue again that they were safe with him.  Some things they were just going to have to learn on their own.  If they wanted the weapons with them, so be it.  Dumbledore opened his bag again pulled out a candy cane that he sat on the coffee table and spoke.  "When I count to three I want everyone to touch the candy cane."  They all looked at him skeptically but nodded in agreement.

"One…Two…Three" All five touched the piece of candy 

*Another Disclaimer:   Ok and the names for the parents and grandparents of Lucius Malfoy and Willow's Great-Grandmother's Name are my own invention.  


	14. The Boy Who Stood Buffy Up

Title: A Broken Beginning Ch 14 (The boy who stood Buffy up)

Author: Nicki C. 

Email: Nimacu@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: "It's all been done before"- Barenaked Ladies.  I don't own Buffy.   Nor do I own the world of Harry Potter.  They both belong to Joss and J.K

Summery: Something happens that causes the Scoobies to head to England.

Feedback: I used to think that I didn't need it and it wasn't very important, but then I got some and I really liked it, in fact the more feedback I got the more I wanted. I think you get the idea.

Thank You

**Dark Comet:**  I can guarantee you she'll never be rude to Lupin.

**WhiteWolf 3:** it's going to be somewhat Willow/Snape

Paz-54: Thank you for your wonderful compliments.  I do enjoy the way the Scoobies speak.  I've been trying to stay true to it.  But if I try too hard it'll sound campy, I think I'm doing good so far in that regard.  The Barenaked Ladies are Awesome.  Here's another quote from them "If I had a million dollars I would buy you a monkey" 

**Jeanne-** Thank you, and your welcome

**Mione Malfoy**- thanks, glad to have a new reader.

**Dawnlady-** Thank you.

The sun was just starting to set when a traveling group of five made a large pop outside of the gates to Hogwarts.  They only gazed around at first letting their eyes adjust to the twilight. But before long the screaming started.

"What's the meaning of this?  Taking us out here to this… this shack?"  Buffy yelled as her eyes took in the "No Trespassing" signs.

Xander who already had a sword drawn spoke "What kind of trick are you pulling?"

"This… This is badness" Dawn stared at the decrepit building with fear in her eyes.

"Yes, what's the meaning of all this" Giles made a sweeping gesture with his hands and then reached to take his glasses off and start cleaning them.

            Dumbledore listened to them with confusion at first, but after a brief moment he realized his mistake. And just as he was going to explain himself and remedy the problem his group of travelers started walking away from him down the path that led away from Hogwarts and Hogsmeade.

            Quickly following after them, Dumbledore cut them off.  "Where are the lot of you going?" He asked them.  He was met with a barrage of answers all given at once.

"Got something important to do!"

"Late for an appointment."

"I've got to get to work"

"There's research that needs done"

            The four started to walk around him and head off again, when it a occurred to him yet again what had happened.  "Wow, I'm really not remembering so well these days, I must have too much on my mind" Dumbledore thought to himself before he yelled for the group of travelers to turn around.

They all turned around and at that moment Dumbledore brought out his wand and as he waved it in their direction he spoke.

"What was carefully kept hidden can now be seen… Reveali!"

            Rubbing her eyes, Buffy looked up at Dumbledore  "What did you do?"  Instead of verbally replying Dumbledore simply motioned to the Hogwarts Grounds with his hand. 

"Wow" Dawn was the first to put it into words.

"Double Wow" Xander added

            Buffy stared at the castle, the sheer size of it mesmerizing her.  Like something out of a fairy tale, it wasn't there one moment and the next it was.  She could sense the magic in the air, it was heavy; almost like a fog.  It painfully reminded her of being near Willow.   Again looking up at Dumbledore, this time with reverence in her eyes she spoke  "Can we go in?"

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

"We'll have to tell Dumbledore." Harry told the two others

"Then he can kill her" Ron quipped

"Ron!" Hermione exclaimed

"Just kidding," he laughed at her

"Seriously, though he needs to know this and right away too." Harry told them again

"I agree" Hermione answered

"Me too" Ron added

            The three Gryffindor's put the books away and started to head to the statue that marked the entrance to the Headmaster's office.  As they were walking Hermione started to share what she'd learned so far in her research.

"Well the Hellmouth isn't exactly what it sounds like, it's more or less an inter-dimensional opening, Sort of a door that opens between a Hell Dimension and our world.  Sunnydale isn't the only one, there's another one in Cleveland, Ohio.  And one in the Middle East."

"What do you mean our world?  We're not the only world?"  Harry asked her.

"No, not other worlds exactly; more like other realities.  But I don't think that describes it accurately either. I'm not really sure exactly how it works, but they all run along side each other.  And a Hellmouth is a spot in our reality where the walls between ours and another "less pleasant" world opens or is at least prone to open."

"Yeah that just made bundles of sense."  Ron looked up at her and rolled his eyes.

"You know, I'm just trying to explain it as well as I can."

"Well don't pretend to sound knowledgeable about something when you don't have a clue about what's going on."

"Could you two stop it for just one minute, I think we have more important things to worry about.  After all we're here at Hogwarts with a witch who's also a Malfoy and as interesting as it might be later, the Hellmouth is in Sunnydale, California;  a place I might add, where we're not."  Harry spoke loudly.  Sometimes he felt so sick of their bickering.  It was almost like a sport between those too, and he didn't like being the spectator all the time, or the referee.

The three continued the walk in silence.  But as they approached the door they realized they weren't the only ones in the hallway. With only faint curiosity they turned to look at the approaching people, they were surprised to see Dumbledore with a group of strangers.  

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

            The hospital wing was crowded yet again.   Snape sat on the bedside of the redheaded witch, while both Weasley brothers were sitting in chairs that were in opposite corners of the room.  Snape could feel them glaring at him from behind while he sat there.  When he'd gotten back he'd refused to tell them where he'd gone or what he'd learned and for the first time since they'd gotten to Hogwarts they were agreeing on something.  They hated him.  And they were saying everything but that as they made snide remarks and mumbled under their breaths.  But even for a man that was used to being loathed it was starting to get to him.  With everything else, it was just too much.

"You two have been in this room all day, I can handle watching her for awhile.  Why don't you take a break?  Stretch your legs or get something to eat?"  He was using his nicest voice (which even he had to admit wasn't that nice) in attempt to get them to agree.

Charlie paused before answering.  He knew he and Percy were acting childish but he couldn't help it, he was tired and worried and all of the tension of the last year seemed to be weighing down on him.  And that girl in the bed seemed to be the catalyst for so much.  For seeing Percy for the first time since that night and being back at Hogwarts together, and the fact that if she woke up and was on their side it could mean the end of Voldemort.  Maybe Snape was right; maybe he did need to take a break.

"Yeah that sounds like a good idea"

Percy heard Charlie and Snape talking but he was too caught up in his own thoughts to reply.  Where had Snape been?  Why wouldn't he tell them?  Weren't they supposed to be working together?  He didn't trust Snape, he never had.  Time hadn't changed that either, anyone who had a file at the ministry that was as confidential and top-secret as his had to be dangerous; no matter whose side he fought on.   Percy's mental examination of Snape was halted when Charlie spoke.

"So what do you say Percy?"  Charlie accented his name like it was dirty word.

"Should we take a break and leave Snape here to watch her?"  He added

            Percy thought about it a moment.  He hadn't been out of this room since he gotten here this morning and it would be nice to stretch his legs a bit.  Although he didn't really embrace the idea of leaving her with Snape, the man couldn't do too much damage with Madame Pomfrey in the next room.

"Sure, why not?"  He answered in a tone that implied indifference either way.

The two Weasleys headed out into the hallway.  Not saying a word they strolled along.  It was the most time they'd spent alone since long before that fight.  Both were lost in memories of Hogwarts when they noticed Ron, Harry and Hermione walking in the corridor ahead of them.  Charlie and Percy looked at each other and looked at the trio, Charlie quietly whispered "Ron doesn't know we're here, let's sneak up on them.  It'll give them a right scare" Percy thought for a moment, he was going to disagree; he'd never been much for scaring people, but it was Ron he was going to embarrass.  And Ron always said he was too stuck-up, well maybe this would teach people to judge him.  Percy nodded in agreement.  

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

            "This really is quite a beautiful castle Mr. Dumbledore."  Giles spoke to the man with out looking at him.  His gaze; just like Buffy's, Xander's and Dawn's was drawn to all of the decoration in the halls of the castle.  

            Buffy could feel the same magical presence in the air in here as she could outside.  Except in the castle it was almost like a basic sense.  She felt it everywhere, and except for the constant reminder of Willow, it was fading in to the back of her consciousness as she focused on everything that was going on around her.  Pictures moving, staircases disappearing.  It was really almost too much… just as she was about to comment on that to Xander, Dumbledore spoke.  "Ah yes, we're almost to my office now."  And as he pointed the way to the end of a Hallway, Buffy notice a group of teenagers standing nearby.  And it seemed that just as she was noticing so was everyone else.

"Ohhh…Boys" Dawn whispered in her ear.

"Down girl" Xander whispered in Dawn's

"Ah yes, why am I not surprised to find the three of you here?  It seems like nothing goes on in this castle without you hearing about it."  Dumbledore was speaking to the teenagers.  

            Just as one of the teenagers, a tall raven-haired boy with a scar on his face was about to speak two men jumped out from behind the corner the teenagers were in front of screaming.  Chaos ensued.

Scoobies poised to tackle.

Wands were drawn.

Percy looked at the group around them and shrugged "Can't you take a joke?"  

"Charlie? Percy? What are you too doing here?" Ron asked

"We thought we were sneaking up on you" Charlie answered him

But as he answered his brother his eyes rested on a short blonde-haired woman standing next to Dumbledore.

"Buffy?" He asked, not believing his eyes

"Charlie?"  Buffy replied, thinking at the same time "What are the chances?" 

"Who's Charlie?" Xander asked bewildered

"Me" Charlie answered

"And your?" Xander still didn't get what the connection between the two was.

Dawn decided to fill him in   "He's the boy who stood Buffy up"


	15. He's an Idiot

Title: A Broken Beginning Ch 15

Author: Nicki C. 

Email: Nimacu@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: "It's all been done before"- Barenaked Ladies.  I don't own Buffy.   Nor do I own the world of Harry Potter.  They both belong to Joss and J.K

Summery: Something happens that causes the Scoobies to head to England.

Feedback: I used to think that I didn't need it and it wasn't very important, but then I got some and I really liked it, in fact the more feedback I got the more I wanted. I think you get the idea.

A/N**It's a little shorter than the last chapter, but I had it written and I'm going to be gone this weekend so I thought I'd post it tonight.  Plus I think it fits as it's own chapter.

Thank you to everyone who emailed me and left reviews letting me know about the chapter mistake, honestly I noticed it about three minutes after I posted it.  Even though I fixed it right away it didn't show up until morning.

Thank you to my lone reviewer (sniff sniff)

****

**Paz-54-** I was really proud of that. It's something that sometimes bothers me about other Harry Potter crossover fics.  Both my brother proofreads this looking for plot holes and I'm very happy to add that he very rarely finds them.  Oh and if I tell you I'll give something away.  But nice catch there nonetheless.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

"What do you mean stood Buffy up?" Xander turned to Dawn with the question, the rest of the people were silent as they heard the exchange between Buffy and Charlie.  But even as he was asking realization dawned on him.

Xander looked at Buffy then turned to Charlie.

"You're an idiot"

Charlie looked at the dark-haired man with Buffy, jealousy unexpectedly creeping up on him and replied.

"I know"

            Dumbledore looked at all of the young people, wondering like the rest of them, how Buffy and Charlie knew each other.  But he also knew there were more important things on hand than failed love affairs.  

"As interesting as this all is, there are other things we need to worry about right now."  

"Like Willow" Giles finished for him

"We need to see her now" Dawn insisted immediately 

"Where is she?" Xander asked

"Oh God, Willow" Buffy said quietly.  She couldn't believe that for that brief moment when she'd first realized that it was Charlie standing across from her she'd forgotten about Willow.  

"We won't do anything else until we see her! Until we know she's safe."  Buffy mentally tried to make up for her forgetfulness by being fierce to Dumbledore.

"I didn't think you would." Dumbledore answered tiredly.  The girl really did take a lot of energy to handle.

"Well then take us too her." She insisted even though she knew she sounded foolish.

"Miss Summer's what does it look I'm doing" She was tiring his nerves.

Buffy could hear the edge in his voice, and even though a little voice in the back of her head told her to shut up, she couldn't help but try and have the last word.

"Than why are we stopped?" 

Xander looked at Buffy and Dumbledore, the power radiating from both of them.  He was afraid they were broaching a full-fledged fight.  And as much as he wasn't sure about trusting Dumbledore completely, he was the man who had Willow, and therefore not one to alienate completely.  He had to do something to alleviate the tension.

"Buffy." Xander answered her by motioning to the group of strangers standing across from them.

"Oh, Yeah, that." Buffy answered somewhat sheepishly

But before anything else could be said Dawn spoke.

 "Ok, as much as I'm sure it was nice to meet all of you, can we save introductions and explanations until later?  Right now I want to see Willow" Dawn had had enough of all of this; she needed to see Willow, to know that she was OK.  She knew things would be better if they could just see her.  

With that, Dumbledore led the Scoobies to the Hospital Wing; Ron, Hermione, Harry, Charlie and Percy closely followed them.  As the new arrivals were toward the Wing ahead of them, Ron slowed the group and turned to his brothers to speak.

 "You're here because of that witch and the dark mark last night right?" 

"How do you know about that?" Percy answered

"Doesn't much happen here that we don't know about. " Hermione interjected in their conversation

"You didn't know we were here" Charlie quipped

"We've been doing research all day" Harry joined the conversation

"What were you researching?" Percy asked

"The witch, the slayer, and the Hellmouth" Ron answered

"Did you find out anything interesting? Charlie eagerly asked

"Yeah, a couple of things" Hermione vaguely answered

"Like what?" Charlie nagged

"We'll tell you later" Harry answered appeasing the elder Weasley brothers for the moment.

They continued to follow the new arrivals until they reached the infirmary.  Again Ron stopped them. 

"We should give them time to see her by themselves."

 "You're right Ron" Charlie agreed.

"Yeah, it's a private moment, it's not like we haven't seen her already." Harry commented

"I haven't" Hermione spoke but quickly added "But that's not important.  They're her friends."

"So what's with you and the slayer?"  Ron asked Charlie

"What slayer?" Charlie wasn't making the connection and didn't know who they were talking about.

"The blonde girl" Ron answered back

"You think Buffy's the slayer?" Percy interjected

"We know she is." Hermione answered him

"How?" Charlie asked

"The American Headmaster told us the Slayer's name" Harry informed them

"Dumbledore didn't mention a name, only that he was going to find her.  Otherwise I would have made the connection sooner." Percy informed them haughtily 

"Yeah I had no idea that Buffy was the Slayer he went looking for" Charlie seemed shocked at the information

"He went looking for the slayer?" Harry asked, "He didn't mention that before"

"Yeah that's where he's been all day, and that's who those people are."  Charlie now acted like he was stating the obvious.

"The American Headmaster mentioned she worked with a group" Hermione commented

"Yeah, I've heard stories." A slow grin spread across Charlie's face

"Really, there are stories about the Slayer?" Ron asked excitedly

"Why haven't we heard them?" Harry immediately followed Ron's question with one of his own.

"You're too young" Percy and Charlie answered at the same time.

Ron grinned before speaking next.  "But you still didn't answer my question, what's going on with you and the Slayer?"  Charlie frowned at his brother before answering.  "Exactly what that girl said.  I stood Buffy up.  That's it." 

"You Idiot" Harry repeated the man's words from earlier.  And with that exclamation Ron and Percy shook their heads in agreement.

"Listen it's not like I had a choice.  Remember, I'm a member of the Order of the Phoenix, you know how they like to send strange orders in the middle of lunch?  Does it ring a bell to anyone?"

"You're still an idiot;" Hermione spoke.  

"What? What could I have done?" Charlie impatiently asked her.  

Ron and Harry Grimaced.  They knew what was coming next.

"Oh I don't know, called?  Men can be so callus sometimes, I'm sure she was upset when you didn't show up.  Did it ever occur to you to think of her feelings?"

" Yes because I have so much experience with phones"

"Oh don't try that Charlie…" She was going to finish her tirade when Harry quickly pulled her aside and whispered in her ear.  "You've been to the Burrow right?  You know they don't have them there.  If he's anything as adept as his father with Muggle inventions it's a good thing he didn't call.  So just give him a break, we're all under a lot of stress here"  

"Alright" Hermione agreed but when she turned back to the group she gave Charlie a pointed glare.

"Should we go in now?" Harry asked the group

"I guess, it's been about 15 minutes, it should be ok."

            The group walked in to find their new arrivals around the witch's bed.  Huddled together with tears streaming down their faces, but there was something else there too, Relief.


	16. And They Finally See Willow

Title: A Broken Beginning Ch 16 (And they finally see Willow)

Author: Nicki C. 

Email: Nimacu@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: "It's all been done before"- Barenaked Ladies.  I don't own Buffy.   Nor do I own the world of Harry Potter.  They both belong to Joss and J.K

Summary: Something happens that causes the Scoobies to head to England.

Feedback: I used to think that I didn't need it and it wasn't very important, but then I got some and I really liked it, in fact the more feedback I got the more I wanted. I think you get the idea.

Thank You,

**Erak-** thank you, and here's more.

**Paz-54-** you'll see in this chapter she's behaving a little better toward him. And I know a lot of people don't like that she's rude.  But I'm trying to stay in character.  And I believe that with Buffy respect is something that has to be earned.  

**Joyclene-**As always your compliments honor me.

**Dslguy14**-thanks. Me too

**Brandy**- thank you for the constructive criticism

**Dark Comet-** Don't worry he's coming

**american-gurl2005-** thank you, always happy to see a new reviewer

**griffindorgirl-**Thank you, and I definitely plan on it

**Jinxy-**your going to love this chapter

**Brian-**I appreciate your compliments and your grammatical corrections

Buffy paid no attention to Charlie and the other strangers as Dumbledore started to lead them toward Willow.  She prayed that this was the real thing, not some elaborate hoax, that when she walked into the room that Willow would really be there.  Like Dawn had said, if Willow was there, then everything could be ok.  As long as Willow was ok then things would start to make sense.  At the thought of Willow being ok, Buffy remembered how vague Dumbledore had been when describing Willow's condition, he told them that she was, "alive, barely, but alive." What did that mean? At the time she hadn't stopped to ask, there'd been so much new information to process. Dumbledore, a secret world, and the fact that Willow was alive and this strange man had her.   She turned to look at Dumbledore, about to demand information about Willow's condition, but closed her mouth before she uttered a syllable. The thought occurred to her that she didn't want to know more.  More information might be bad, and she'd had enough bad.  

A few moments later they arrived outside of a door, Dumbledore opened the door pausing to explain. 

"This leads to the school's hospital wing."  

Buffy looked in Dumbledore's eyes searching for any hidden malice or deceit, almost hoping to find it, but instead, she only saw sympathy and weariness.  Squaring her shoulders back, and holding her head high, she looked past him and walked through the doorway.

~.~.~.~.~.~

Xander listened to Dawn demand to see Willow, reminding him that they were wasting time here, time that could be spent after they'd made sure she was safe.  He followed the rest as Dumbledore led them down the hallway.  The last twenty-four hours had seemed so un-real to him. And that was saying a lot, considering almost everything that happened to him would be considered un-real to most people.  Not being able to find Willow, and all that strange talk in town.  Then the old man showing up on the doorstep with information about Willow with a wild story about secret worlds and then a magical trip to an invisible castle.  And now on top of all of this there was this new guy, Carl or Chris or something like that.  This guy who had dated Buffy, or almost dated.  Something like that anyway.  And it appears that this Chuck (maybe?) is apart of this 'wizarding world,' and at that thought Xander instinctively winced.  Couldn't Buffy find a normal boyfriend? The Supernatural ones sure weren't working out for her.  But then again Parker and Scott were 'normal' and they both broke her heart. Xander could feel the protectiveness welling up inside of him at that thought; Buffy had horrible taste in men. And if this guy had stood her up, he couldn't be that great either.  

As Dumbledore stopped outside of a door and said, "This leads to the school's hospital wing."  Xander could see Buffy scrutinizing the older wizard.  Xander watched them, rubbing his forehead.  He was so tired and this was all too much.  

As he followed Buffy and Dumbledore through the doors, Xander let his eyes readjust to the brighter lighting.  He looked around the room, but even before his eyes landed on her, he felt her.  Willow lay on a bed in the center of the room, looking frail against the white sheets.  She was safe.  She was alive.

~.~.~.~.~.~.

She was safe.  She was alive.

Relief flooded every fiber of Giles' being.  Willow was really here and she looked ok, she wasn't awake, but she was ok.  

~.~.~.~.~.~.

Thank God, she was ok.  Dawn's breath became ragged as she looked at Willow lying in the hospital bed.  She was so scared.  She couldn't lose anybody else.  Mom. Tara.  Everyone she loved left.  Willow couldn't leave too. She needed her too much.

~.~.~.~.~.~

"What's wrong with her?" Giles directed the question to Dumbledore.  

The older man seemed to consider his answer before speaking.  "Well, she's unconscious and we aren't exactly sure why, we haven't quite seen anything like this before.  We think we know what happened to her but we're not positive."

"Is she going to be ok?" Dawn asked in a voice only slightly more than a whisper.

At that question a tall dark-haired man that they hadn't noticed before spoke,  "We aren't sure."

"And you are?"  Buffy demanded of him.

"Severus Snape." The man offered without a handshake or a smile.

Something in the man's voice irked Buffy.  And she couldn't help snarkly remarking.

"Well aren't you a bundle of friendliness."

"Always," he replied without missing a beat.

"So can you tell us what you think happened?" Buffy redirected the conversation towards Willow.

At this question a stout woman who'd been standing near another door at the far end of the room spoke.

"We think she may have been hit with a killing curse."

"What's that mean?" Xander asked

The man who'd introduced himself as Severus answered him

"It's a curse that kills." 

"Well I could figure that out, but she's not dead." Xander snapped.

The woman spoke again. "We know." 

Giles imposed himself in the conversation questioned, "So what happened then?"

This time Dumbledore was the one who answered, "That we don't know." 

Dawn, who'd been silent as they talked about the killing curse finally spoke; her voice breaking with tears.  "They wanted Willow dead?"  Before anyone could answer her, Dawn seemed to have lost whatever control she was maintaining and her body racked with sobs.  Buffy, Giles and Xander gathered her between them, holding and comforting each other.

~.~.~.~.~.

Huddled around each other and standing next to Willow's bed is how Ron, Harry, Hermione, Ron and Percy found the Americans when they entered the hospital wing.  Dumbledore motioned with his finger against his mouth for them to be quiet as the stood just inside the door.

~.~.~.~.~.

Willow was still in the same room, she'd tried laying down to get some sleep, but it hadn't worked.  It was so lonely and quiet and she was starting to get scared.  It felt like she'd been there forever.  She knew if she didn't get out of there soon she'd go crazy.  She got up and started pacing back and forth across the floor. She thought things couldn't get any worse, but then she heard this sound and it took her a moment to recognize it.  It was Dawnie, and she was crying.  Willow felt the emptiness in her stomach fall out, replaced with the need to comfort Dawn.  She clawed at the sides of the room, yelling for Dawn, trying to get to her.  

~.~.~.~.~.

Dawn could feel the Wizards watching her as her family tried to calm down, but try as she might she couldn't reign in her emotions.  In fact her sobbing was the only sound in the room until someone spoke.

"Shush…Dawnie, it'll be ok." A weak voice comforted from the hospital bed

A/N** It's a little short, but the next chapter will be out soon


	17. Introductions: Old and New

Title: A Broken Beginning Ch 17 

Author: Nicki C. 

Email: Nimacu@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: "It's all been done before"- Barenaked Ladies.  I don't own Buffy.   Nor do I own the world of Harry Potter.  They both belong to Joss and J.K. The character of the dastardly Robert is mine though, at least I think. If I'm wrong someone let me know.

Summary: Something happens that causes the Scoobies to head to England.

Feedback: I used to think that I didn't need it and it wasn't very important, but then I got some and I really liked it, in fact the more feedback I got the more I wanted. I think you get the idea.

Thank You,

**Black Rose9-** Thank you

**KatiKrzystofiak2002-** Thank you, and I am truly horrible at Summaries and if you can come up with a better one, I'll use it.  And I'm honored to be on your favorite authors list.

**Dark Comet-** Ok you're probably not going to like Buffy in this chapter, but remember she's on an emotional roller coaster.

**American-gurl2005-** thank you, and I glad that my story touched you

**Lilshortmutt-** thank you for the compliments 

A/N**It's come to my attention recently that my summary leaves something to be desired, so if anyone has a better way of putting it let me know and I'll do that.  I'd really appreciate any help.

A/N2**This is my longest chapter yet!!!

It took a moment for Dawn to register where the voice was coming from, but she seemed to realize who had spoken at the same time Buffy did.  Dawn launched herself onto Willow's bed.

"Thank God Willow you're awake." Dawn mumbled into Willow's hair as she hugged her for dear life.

"Is that why you were crying?"

"Uh huh," Dawn answered with a big grin across her face as she stepped back.

Buffy, who was standing next to the bed looking at Willow had started crying even harder. Willow looked up at her and then both girls began to talk at the same time.

"I got stood up and then Dawn was making fun of me…then we couldn't find you," Buffy was sobbing.

"They took me out of my room" Willow started crying too

"No one knew where you were at" She screeched

By this point in the conversation both girls were talking so fast and in such rapid succession that it was getting harder for the others in the room to understand them.

"I didn't even get a chance to scream." 

"Dehoffryn's dead…and Willy said you made someone mad."

"There was this dark room."

"Then there was this strange man… and I didn't trust him…."

"I felt so alone." 

"But I do now."

"I was so scared."

At this point it was Buffy's turn to hug Willow and both girls were sobbing as they babbled out the remainder of their conversation.

"We had to find you."

"I knew you'd find me."

The girls continued to comfort each other until their sobbing turned into hiccups and uncontrollable grins.  Willow took a moment to look around the crowded room, there were an awful lot of people staring at her, she could feel the heat rise up her face as she pulled the sheet that was covering her up to her chin, she was going to ask who all the strangers were but before she could speak again Xander and Giles seemed to regain their wits, effulging her in another round of hug the lost Scooby. 

However eventually they too stood up, giving Willow a chance once again to look over the faces in the room.  Buffy, Dawn, Xander and Giles she of course recognized, but there were at least a half dozen other people in the room.  Standing at the foot of her bed was an old man with a long beard wearing a blue dress with little pink moons on it, she studied him for a moment looking at his care-worn face.  Looking into his eyes, she knew that even though she had no idea where she was or who all these people were, she was safe.   She was broken out of her reverie by a creeping sensation that everyone waiting for her to say something.  There were two teenage boys standing in the corner, one had red hair and the other black, next to the two boys were two men who undoubtedly were related to the red-haired boy; the three sported identical red hair and freckles.  All four of them were taking turns staring at the ceiling. 

Next to them in a chair a man with black hair and dark eyes stared at her blatantly, the kind of stare meant to unsettle a person.  And it was from her inspection of the dark-haired man that Willow was interrupted by a slight cough from the elderly man.

"Miss Rosenberg if I may be so humble as to introduce myself." He paused for a moment almost expecting her to interrupt and was surprised when she didn't. "My name is Albus Dumbledore and I'm headmaster here at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"Is that where I'm at?" Willow asked; a little awestruck at the idea of a school for witchcraft.

"Yes you're in the school's hospital wing." He answered her.

"How did I get here?" she looked at him quizzically.

"Well…" Willow could see that he was going to start explaining but was interrupted by the arrival of a teenage girl and a man and woman.

Buffy looked pointedly between Dumbledore and the new arrivals, it was obvious that the girl they'd met earlier had gone to retrieve more people.  Buffy had had enough; she was starting to wonder how many more people were going to fit into this room before somebody did some explaining.  

"Welcome all, just take a seat and join the freak show." Buffy had meant to say casually but her voice rose a few octaves higher than normal.

Willow grabbed her arm, "Buffy relax, I'm sure all these people are here for a reason."

"Yeah and that reason is to see if they can't get a glimpse of the slayer and her friends…" Willow tried interrupting her, "But.." 

However, Buffy was tired and a little overstressed, not to mention on a major emotional rollercoaster for the last twenty-four hours and she was having none of that, "Don't 'But' me, for these people our lives are just fodder for scary stories and interesting conversation.  We're practically celebrities, and we didn't even know they existed."  Buffy let it all out in one breath, her voice getting louder and louder. 

Again Willow spoke "Who are they?"  

"Oh you're going to love this one Willow." Buffy was going to continue explaining, but in a change of pace Dumbledore interrupted her.

"I think perhaps now is not the time to discuss this, I believe simple introductions would better serve Miss Rosenberg during her recovery period."

Buffy mulled over that for a moment letting her temper cool.  He was probably right, and talking about the "wizarding world" did get her really worked up.  She had been told once that she had a tendency to lead toward wallowing in her own righteous indignation.

"Yes, I do believe a few introductions would be in order," Buffy agreed with him, at the same time making it sound like it was her own idea.  Before anyone else could speak the stout woman who had been in front of the other door when the Scoobies arrived spoke.

"Well, I'm going to speak first since I have work to do and I need check over Miss Rosenberg and see what other kind of damage has been wrought that we couldn't fix while she was unconscious."  After explaining that to them she headed over to check Willow's pulse but was stopped by a urging cough from Dumbledore that sounded something like "CoughyournameCough."

"Oh yes, I'm Madame Pomfrey and I'm the medi-witch here at Hogwarts." 

"Remus Lupin, Professor of Defense against the Dark Arts." The frail looking man who had just walked in said as he nodded his head towards the group standing near the bed.

As soon as he'd finished talking the taller redheaded man from the corner walked towards them and grabbed Giles hand, shaking it professionally.  "Percy Weasley, It's an honor to meet all of you."  

"Yes, well um.." Giles sputtered a moment at the man's obvious brown-nosing. "Thank you, I'm Rupert Giles, everyone calls me Giles so you probably can too."

Xander who had been standing at Giles side spoke next, "Xander Harris." He said simply with no explanation.

The man in the chair who had been silently listening to the introductions spoke.  "For all that it matters to the lot of you, my name is Severus Snape, and I teach potions here."

"Your right it doesn't matter," Buffy's quip escaped her lips before she had time to think about how rude it was.

"Buffy!" Willow looked at her reproachingly; then turned to the man explaining, "You'll have to pardon my friend, manners aren't her strong suit. I think it comes from killing demons every night.  Just because they're slayed by her wit…"  She was going to continue before Dawn interrupted.  

"Please Willow no bad puns tonight."

"All right, Willow talk will be all straight and narrow," Willow appeased her.  "Well then, even though I'm sure you all know my name I'll introduce myself.  Willow Rosenberg."

Next to introduce themselves were all the teenagers in the room.  All four doing so quickly.

"Harry Potter." The black-haired boy spoke; his voice cracking as he looked at Buffy with awe.

"Ron Weasley." The Redheaded teen announced.

"Hermione Granger." The girl with the brown bushy hair said in a business like voice.

Dawn took a quick look at the other teenagers before introducing herself.  "Dawn Summers."

"Charlie Weasley" the other red-haired man introduced himself stepping forward, all the while looking all about the room in any direction except for at Buffy who was giving him a scathing glare.  There was a moment of silence, almost as if he was waiting for Buffy to say something.  When she kept her mouth shut, he smiled at the others in the room and stepped back.

 "Well I must say it is nice to meet all of you." The woman who had arrived with Remus Lupin spoke for the first time; interrupting the awkward silence she didn't understand.  

"My name is Minerva McGonagall and I teach Transfiguration and I am Deputy Headmistress at Hogwarts."  

Buffy looked around the room before speaking, letting her gaze fall on Charlie and meeting his eyes as she spoke.  "My name is Buffy Summers, I'm the slayer.  And I want him out of here now!" Buffy pointed accusingly at Charlie.

"What! I have as much right to be here as you do!"  Charlie yelled back

"If you're going to argue, then none of you need to be here.  Well even if you aren't going to argue, you need to leave.  Miss Rosenberg needs her rest and she's not going to get it with a dozen people in the room." Madam Pomfrey informed them, cutting Buffy off before she could reply to Charlie.  

And without another word she ushered them out of the room.  Before they knew it they were all staring at the door to the infirmary wondering what had just happened.  

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Ginny Weasley and Neville Longbottom were sitting in the Gryffindor Common watching the fire crackle.  Ginny's eyes were red from the crying that she'd recently done and Neville was watching her warily.  Not sure of what to say or do.  He really wished her brother or Hermione was somewhere around to deal with this; but he hadn't seen them all day.

"Sniff…Sniff… I just don't understand what I did wrong.  I thought I was a good girlfriend.  Don't you think I'm a good girlfriend Neville?"

"I'm sure you're a great girlfriend"

"Then why did he break up with me?"

"He's just a stupid git," Neville told her patting her back awkwardly.  He couldn't really remember the name of the boy Ginny was crying about.  Some Ravenclaw seventh year that she'd started dating at the end of September after she and Dean had had a smashing row the second day of school.

"Oh Neville." Ginny wailed as her crying started anew.

"Oh Merlin, where's your brother?" Neville thought as he continued to comfort Ginny.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Luna Lovegood sat in the library contemplating the meaning of Love.  She loved that word love.  Whether you said it quickly or elongated it Looooovvvvvvveeeee.  And whenever she thought about love she though about a certain redhead.  And when she thought about him, it made her sad.  Because no matter which way she examined it, he didn't return an ounce of affection her way.  

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"I think it's time that we all start heading back to our respective quarters, it's late.  And I've found in my many years that often complicated things can wait until we've had a good night's sleep." Dumbledore told the group.

"Yes, Professor I agree with you completely.  But shouldn't somebody stay here to guard the door?"  Lupin asked the older wizard.

"Yes of course, Severus?" Dumbledore questioned the potions professor.

"My pleasure," he answered in a voice that made one think it was anything but.

"Well then off to bed with all of you, get a good night's sleep.  Students will be expected in class in the morning just like any other."  Dumbledore told Harry, Ron and Hermione and then sent them on their way.

"Excuse me, Professor Dumbledore," Giles spoke. "Where will we sleep?"

"Yes, where will our quarters be?" Percy asked also.

"Of course, I almost forgot.  Minerva, would you show these six to our guest chambers?"

"Of course, follow me." She answered and then led Buffy, Giles, Xander, Dawn, Percy, and Charlie away.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

"Bloody Hell!" Ron exclaimed, as they were almost halfway back to Gryffindor tower.

"What?" Harry asked, while Hermione just grimaced at his language.

"I've lost my wand, it must still be in the library, or the infirmary, or it could be outside Dumbledore's office."

"Do you want us to help you find it?"

"No, I can handle it.  After all in about five minutes you're going to breaking curfew and I can still be out."  Ron answered referring to his status as a prefect; which allowed him more freedom concerning curfews.

"Oh no. Ron. Wait!" Hermione was the one to exclaim now.

"What's wrong now?" Ron asked impatient to be going.

"It's our night to patrol the hallways."

"Can you do it without just this once, I've really got to find my wand." Ron begged.

"Ron Weasley you'd lose your head if it wasn't attached, and not to mention your take on responsibility…" Hermione was going to continue berating him until he interrupted her.

"Can you just do it?"  He was getting impatient.

"Fine." She answered stalking off.

Harry looked at Hermione's retreating back and then at Ron.  "You can't seem to get along for more than two minutes these days," he said as he walked away.  Ron rubbed between his eyes, staring at the floor.  "I know."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Luna got up.  It was really getting late and even though she had been made a prefect this year, she didn't like being out in the corridors this late at night.  It wasn't that she was afraid of what she didn't know was out there.  It was more that she was afraid of what she was sure lived in the dark.  She packed her bags and was walking out of the library watching her feet shuffle when she ran into someone.  Looking up she realized it wasn't just any someone, it was the someone.  

"Hi Ron!" Luna greeted him dreamily.

"Luna, um…err…hi.  Haven't seen a wand around here have you?"  After everything that had happened today and last night, Luna was not one of the people he felt like dealing with at the moment.  

"No, do you need help looking?" She asked with an eager expression on her face.

"Well..um..Why not? Sure."  Ron answered smiling at her.

They started checking under tables and on chairs (Ron couldn't really remember exactly where they'd been sitting earlier).  Ron took a minute to watch "Loony" Luna.  She was definitely unique.  But pretty in the strange sort way, where as everything about her was haphazard in design, but somehow worked.  Not that he very often looked at other girls, he'd been hopelessly in love with Hermione since second year.  But as he looked around the room the more he thought about it the more Luna appealed to him.  Things with Hermione where always so conflicted and difficult, and she had never told him about her relationship with Viktor.   And he knew exactly how Luna felt about him; hell everyone knew how Luna felt about him.  As he was contemplating this, Luna jumped out from under a table in the back.

"I've found it Ron!" She ran up to give it to him, stumbling in her effort to stop; forcing Ron to catch her.

"To hell with it," Ron muttered as bent down and kissed her.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Harry made the rest of the way back to the tower by himself.  Thinking a lot about the slayer and the witch and their friends.  It didn't seem like they'd learned too much at all tonight.  But he could understand.  What a relief it must be for those people to have their friend back.  And if he was exhausted they were probably twice as much so.  

He gave the password to the fat lady, "Twitterpatted," and headed into the Common Room.  The first thing he heard was, "sniff…sniff…I just don't understand." Someone was crying and it sounded like Ginny.  Something clicked in Harry as he rushed over to Ginny and Neville.  

"What's wrong? Has something happened?"  Harry asked hurriedly, visions of grave news in him mind.  His only answer was Ginny flinging herself in his arms, mumbling something about Robert dumping her.

~.~.~.~.~.~

Buffy and Dawn were in there room; were getting ready for bed, making idle conversation.  Trying not think of serious things.

"Wow, I'm glad they brought the right pajamas!" Dawn said.

"Yeah me too, although I am a little creeped out at the idea of someone else bringing my stuff here."

"Yeah, so umm, Buffy?"

"What?"

"Are you going to talk to Charlie?"

"No."

"Why?"

"He stood me up, plus he didn't tell me about this whole secret wizard thing he had going on."

"Well, you should find out why he stood you up, and as far as that whole secret wizard thing, you only talked for ten minutes yesterday.  Should he have turned in a resume and written history then."

"No… ugh! Do you always have to be so reasonable?"

"No, in fact not being reasonable is what I'm famous for.  However I can see the light when there's a cute guy involved," Dawn answered matter-of-factly.

"You think he's cute?" Buffy skeptically questioned her, raising an eyebrow as she got into bed.

"Don't delude yourself Buffy, he's a major hottie!" Dawn spoke as she got into bed 

"I know," Buffy muttered as she threw her head down on the pillow.

Next Chapter***How will Severus keep busy all night?  What's Willow thinking?  Where's Hermione?  And…Charlie and Buffy talk.


	18. A Tiny Chapter with Big Smoochies

Title: A Broken Beginning Ch 18 Kisses

Author: Nicki C. 

Email: Nimacu@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: "I can't get no respect" –Rodney Dangerfield.  Unfortunately I also can't get any copyrights or licenses.  So the characters still aren't mine. 

Summery: Buffy, Xander, Dawn and Giles go to Hogwarts to find Willow.

Feedback: I used to think that I didn't need it and it wasn't very important, but then I got some and I really liked it, in fact the more feedback I got the more I wanted. I think you get the idea.

A/N**To my faithful readers, I'm sorry it's been so long.  My grandfather had a stroke and then subsequently died.  So I've been really busy, plus all that grieving stuff doesn't make for a lot of thoughts of writing.

Thank you:

**Dark Comet:**  You are my most faithful reviewer, and I agree, Buffy's a little difficult, and I want a slow character change into someone to admire.  I hate fics where Buffy is this happy go lucky girl who's just willing to move to England and a. be a teacher b. be a witch or c. fight Voldemort.  Sorry I'll get off my soapbox.

**Seoid:**  I think I emailed you and answered your questions; it's been so long.  Thank you for your review.

**Yisulain:  **I think you'll love this chapter

**Terrina:** You reviewed again *Does happy dance* Glad you're still reading it.

Oh and it's time again to thank those who have me on their favorite author lists, and who have stuck it out through this dry spell… **Seoid**, **Joyclene,** **erak,** **Last Hope2,** **and** **KatiKrzystofiak2002.**

Ron pulled away from Luna, looking down at her before speaking  "Do you want me to walk you to your common room?"

"Sure" Luna answered 

            Ron turned to leave but realized that Luna was still standing there with her eyes closed.

"Luna?"

"Yes?"

"Aren't you going to open your eyes?"

"No, if I open my eyes, I might wake up and realized I just imagined that"

            Ron cleared his throat, not sure of what to say or do.  Suddenly wondering if kissing her had been such a good idea.

 "What the hell" he thought "In for a penny; in for a pound."  Ron grabbed her hand and led a grinning Luna out of the library.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Hermione patrolled the halls fuming over Ron's negligent attitude; she couldn't believe that she was out here by herself.  Covering for Ron again.  It seemed to her that this was just the sort of pattern their relationship had fallen into over the years.  Ron would screw up, either out of laziness or lack of attention and then she'd cover for him.  It was so frustrating.   Her thoughts continued along that pattern as she finished up her rounds by checking the doors to each Common room, making sure they were shut tight; and that everything appeared in order.  

She'd gone past the Slytherin Common room quickly, not wanting to wallow in the dungeons too long by herself and was headed to check the Ravenclaw portrait.  As she headed toward the tower that held the Ravenclaw dorms she could hear people walking in front of her.  Hermione slowed and quieted her steps, hoping to surprise whoever it was and at least get have a little fun scaring a first or second year. The people ahead of her stopped and Hermione heard a giggle in a voice that seemed very familiar even though she couldn't place it.  She rounded the corner expecting to come across a couple of young kids out for the thrill of breaking curfew; but what she saw shocked her.  Shocked her so much that it took a moment to realize what she was seeing.

Ron…and….Luna….Kissing

Her Ron…and Luna… 

She let out a small whimper, catching the attention of the snogging teens.

Then she ran…

~. ~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Tap…Tap…Tap…

Buffy tossed in her bed, trying to ignore what ever was making noise at the conscious level.

Tap…Tap…Tap….

"Dawnie, would you cut that out?" Buffy grumbled at her sleeping sister throwing a pillow at the still form.

Tap…Tap…Tap…

Buffy awoke fully in bed, staring at her strange surroundings.  It took her a moment to remember where she was.  Hogwarts School of …but that train of thought was interrupted by that noise again.

Tap…Tap…Tap…

Realizing that someone was knocking on the door to her room, Buffy got up, mumbling something about daylight savings time and that whoever it was have better have a good reason for waking her up.

Opening the door, Buffy peeked around the edge. 

It was Charlie.

"This had better be good," she whispered as she followed him into the hallway, softly closing the door behind her, as to not wake Dawn.

"I owe you an apology" He spoke, looking down at her with a look that screamed "sad lost puppy"

"Yes you do" She was having none of that, trying to win her over with those gorgeous apologetic eyes.  Who did he think he was?

"….." He was silent waiting for her to except his apology

"Well where is it?" Buffy placed a hand on her hip expectantly

"Didn't' I just give it to you?" He was confused

"No, you told me you owed me one, not that you were giving me one.  Now do it!" Hand still on her hip, she had to tilt her head up to look him in the eye defiantly.

He looked at her.  Merlin, she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.  He was about to give her the apology she'd demanded.  He'd give her anything if she'd smile at him the way she had in the coffee shop.  His mind told his lips to say it, but instead something else happened.

"Oh my God, he's going to kiss me," Buffy thought just before her lips met Charlie's in a sea of electricity and confusion.  Grabbing the collar on his shirt, she brought him closer; deepening the kiss.

Charlie felt her pull him closer; all of his senses were drowning in her.  He had to pull back.

Buffy felt him pull away from her, and in a rare moment was speechless as Charlie whispered in her ear.  "I'm sorry" and then walked away.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

A/N***I know that I promised Willow and Snape in this chapter, but I'm going to save it for the next, because I'm going away this weekend and I wanted to post something even if it was small.

Fan Art:  If you'd like to see some fan art for this fic, follow the link on profile.


	19. Just Feel

Title: A Broken Beginning Ch 19 

Author: Nicki C. 

Email: Nimacu@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: "It's all been done before"- Barenaked Ladies. I don't own Buffy. Nor do I own the world of Harry Potter. They both belong to Joss and J.K. The character of the dastardly Robert is mine though, at least I think. If I'm wrong someone let me know.

Summary: Something happens that causes the Scoobies to head to England.

Feedback: I used to think that I didn't need it and it wasn't very important, but then I got some and I really liked it, in fact the more feedback I got the more I wanted. I think you get the idea.

A/N**It's been along time, and I apologize. I could list a thousand reasons and they wouldn't be good enough. But hey I'm back and better than ever, so let the show begin!!!

**Thank You's**

**Dark Comet** Wow if you're still reading this fix, then you have my undying gratitude. And here's your snape fix

**Seoid** Oh there's going to be a triangle, but hopefully everyone will be ok with how it turns out.

**Griffindor Lady **and **Acacia Jules** Thank you both very much

Willow felt drowsy, but she didn't want to go to sleep, afraid that she might not wake up again. She gave herself a few moments to look around the room her bed was in, it reminded her of a hospital emergency room. There was more than one bed in the room, but dividing curtains hung from the ceiling, ready to give privacy if needed. 

"Wow, they're pretty self-sufficient here. I wonder what the rest of the school is like?" 

But before she could wonder long the man that Buffy had been rude to earlier walked in the door and sat down in a chair near it. He didn't say anything as he pulled a book out of the dress-type thing he was wearing and started reading.

"Egh...Egh.." Willow cleared her throat hoping to get the man's attention, but he just continued to read.

"Your name is Severus right?" Willow broke the silence in the room

"Yes" Severus answered without looking up and offering no more information.

Well isn't he just chatty, Willow though to herself. "Well what are you doing here?" 

"I'm protecting you and I'm reading a book so if you don't mind I'd love to continue doing both things without interruption."

"Fine, Whatever Mr. Friendly" He was something else, Willow decided as she settled down in the bed. However she noticed he was no longer reading the book but looking at her instead, and she was even more surprised when he spoke kindly (well she supposed it was supposed to be kind). "You need to heal, go to sleep. Someone will answer your questions in the morning.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's amazing how crazy that girl was already making him. "I kissed her! She liked it!" Charlie kept repeating over and over in his head as he headed back to his room. Starting to get ready for bed he remembered something that Dumbledore had mentioned earlier in the day "who had given us the tip about Sunnydale?" It might turn out to be very important. 

"I'd better get it done before I head to bed, there's going to be too many things going on tomorrow."

_Dad,_

_Merlin, did you send us into a weird situation here. No time to explain, but I need to know where you got the tip about Sunnydale from._

_Love, Charlie_

_P.S. I think I'm in love..._

Charlie wasn't sure why he added the last part but left it anyway as he rolled up the parchment and headed to the owlry. Hopefully Ron wouldn't mind he borrowed that little pest he called an owl.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Harry had gingerly disentangled himself from Ginny. All this fuss over a boy. Girls seemed to spend an awful lot of time crying. First Cho, and at least Cedric was dead so she had a reason to cry, but now Ginny too. And that Robert fellow had been an idiot anyway. He patted her back as he led her to the girl's staircase. 

"Ginny, everything will seem better in the morning." He tried to console her but she just looked away forlornly and left the common room. 

After she left Harry headed back to the sofa in front of the fireplace where Neville was still sitting quietly.

"Has she been like that long?"

"All night?"

"Do you know exactly what happened?"

"Not really, I mean obviously he broke up with her. But..."

"Well I'd love to go and get Ron and talk to him, but there's too much other bull going on right now."

"The American Witch?"

"How did you know?"

"Have I not been friends with "the boy who lived" for five years? Even I pick up a few things"

"True" 

They both stared at the fire for a few minutes, comfortable in the silence until Neville spoke "So you do want to fill me in on what's going on?" Harry looked at Neville for a moment; he was one of his most trusted friends apart from Ron and Hermione. And he had stood by him when no one else was, and his progress last year with Defense against the Dark Arts" And so whispering he filled Neville in on all the details of Willow Rosenberg and the Slayer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hermione ran blindly, tears cascading down her face. How could he, he was supposed to be hers...well not really but he was. She loved him, he should have known enough to know that. And there he was kissing that airhead. Gasping for breath and feeling suddenly very sick she stopped running, leaning her body against a cold wall. With her head in her hands all she could do was cry, she couldn't think, couldn't speak. Just feel.

"Looks like someone's been fighting with the Weasel" A cold voice interrupted her sobs. "Oh Merlin, I don't need this now." She thought and in one fluid motion she grabbed her wand out of her robes and lifted her head up.

"What do you want!" She said pointing her wand at the blonde wizard with each syllable 

"Oh a little touchy tonight? Had a lover's spat?" Draco Malfoy was grinning at her obvious distress.

Looking at his face and without even thinking, she turned him into a ferret. It had been the first thing that had come to her mind, and she knew it was too harsh and against the rules. But before she had a chance to fix her mistake another even colder voice spoke behind her.

"I would really prefer if you turned my son back now"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


End file.
